- Valerie Biden Owens says the White House shouldn't rely on "Washington jargon."
- "Talk about infrastructure? What the hell? I don't care about infrastructure," Biden Owens told USA Today.
- "I care about the water that's coming out of my faucet that is toxic to my children," she added.
Valerie Biden Owens says the White House should stop using "Washington jargon" when touting its legislative accomplishments, like the landmark $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law Congress passed in 2021.
"Talk about infrastructure? What the hell? I don't care about infrastructure," Biden Owens told USA Today in an interview ahead of the publication of her memoir "Growing Up Biden," which is slated for release on Tuesday. "I care about the water that's coming out of my faucet that is toxic to my children."
Biden Owens, President Joe Biden's older sister, is perhaps Biden's closest confidante, most voracious defender, and top political adviser. Known as a "Biden whisperer" on the 2020 campaign trail, she also rarely shies away from speaking her mind.
"We have been best friends our entire life," Biden Owens told USA Today of her brother. "I can't read his mind, but 99.9% of the time, we'll come out with the same answer, his by Jesuit logic and mine by just a feel."
In the USA Today interview and her book, Biden Owens also discussed the family's internal deliberations over whether Biden should run for president for a third time in 2020. Biden, still reeling from the 2015 death of his son Beau from cancer, wavered between a desire to step out of the spotlight after a four-decade-plus career in politics and Beau's wish for his father to continue serving his country.
"I just thought the price was going to be too high," Biden Owens wrote of a 2020 presidential run, according to USA Today.
"It met and exceeded my expectations of being ugly and degrading, disrespectful, a disservice to the country," she told the news outlet of the 2020 campaign. "Trump and his right-wing followers have continued to do whatever they can to discredit the family and therefore to bring Joe down."
But Biden Owens said her brother isn't at all bothered by attacks on his mental state and fitness for office, and the family is fully prepared for whatever political attacks are coming down the line from congressional Republicans.
The GOP has vowed to launch high-profile investigations into Biden's eldest son Hunter and his business dealings, if they retake control of Congress in the 2022 midterms.
"I don't know what could be worse than Beau's dying of glioblastoma when he was 46 years old. I don't know what could be worse than watching Hunter walk through hell," Biden Owens said, referring to Hunter's public, years-long struggles with substance abuse and mental illness. "You never say the worst is over, but whatever comes, we can handle it as a family."