- Jill Biden wishes people could see more of Joe Biden's "accomplishments" and hard work.
- "It's a tough time in history. And Joe and I see that. I think that's the reason he was elected," she told Real Simple.
- "Sometimes it feels like we're pushing this boulder up the hill, but progress is being made," she said.
First lady Jill Biden said she wishes "people could see more" of President Joe Biden's accomplishments and efforts as his administration confronts challenges on numerous fronts.
"These problems are coming so fast and furious, and certainly a lot of it is dark, like you said," Jill Biden said in an interview with Real Simple. "But I wish people could see more of what Joe has accomplished and how hard he's working."
The Biden administration has contended with a slew of obstacles including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a war in Ukraine, inflation, high gas prices, a baby formula shortage, and gun violence. While gas prices have been steadily falling and Biden could secure another domestic policy win with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, those economic factors have strained Americans' pocketbooks.
"It's a tough time in history. And Joe and I see that. I think that's the reason he was elected," Jill Biden said. "He's steady, he's strong, he has wisdom, he knows politics, and he knows where he wants to take the country. Sometimes it feels like we're pushing this boulder up the hill, but progress is being made."
Jill Biden touted the Biden administration's achievements, like rolling out access to COVID-19 vaccines and passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill, adding that Biden is "every single day, on the phone talking to leaders about gas and oil."
She further called on the US Senate to heed Biden's call to pass legislation expanding access to universal pre-K and childcare, noting how Biden himself had experienced becoming a single parent after his first wife and daughter died in a car accident shortly after he was first elected to office.
"I think that helped him understand what working parents, not just working moms, need," she said. "He keeps pushing it, but Congress has got to step up. The House passed the subsidized childcare and his universal pre-K bills, but the Senate did not. I don't understand why it wasn't instantly voted in. Joe's not going to give up."
Jill Biden also highlighted the value of "showing up" in her own work as first lady representing the Biden White House.
"When I went to Waukesha, Wisconsin, a Republican area, I wasn't sure how I would be received," she told Real Simple. "And I think they didn't know either: 'Is she coming for political reasons? Is she grandstanding?' But once I went in—and I didn't have the press with me or the photographers; I just went in by myself and talked to the families—they saw I was sincere."