Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? - The Washington Post

Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? - The Washington Post

Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump?

On the chaotic day that Joe Biden called Sen. Kamala D. Harris to ask whether she’d be his running mate, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s phone rang. As one of four co-chairs on Biden’s vice-presidential selection committee, Garcetti was one of a handful of people on the planet privy to that extensive and secretive process. On the other end of the line was someone even more involved in the decision: Joe’s wife of 43 years, Jill.

So central was Jill Biden’s role in the process that the selection committee had presented their initial findings to the Bidens as a pair. With Jill’s input, Joe narrowed the field of more than 20 to the 11 whom he then interviewed one on one. Joe called the other contenders to tell them Harris was his choice, and Jill was the one calling the four selection committee co-chairs to tell them the news.

The extent of Jill Biden’s influence on big decisions in her husband’s campaign to unseat President Trump is both mysterious and not. “It’s a marriage” is her standard line, which is to say, of course they’ve talked about this, they bounce things off each other all the time, and we don’t get to know the details. (Her staff declined to make her available for an interview.)

Here’s something we do know: The Jill Biden who will address the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night is playing a far more active role in her husband’s campaign than she has in his past two White House bids, in 1988 and 2008, according to close friends and confidants. Though she’s spent eight years in and near the White House, her speech at the virtual convention will probably serve as a reintroduction to voters — a big moment for a potential first lady, even under these circumstances. CONTINUE READING: Jill Biden is finally ready to be first lady. Can she help her husband beat Trump? - The Washington Post