First Lady Jill Biden is reportedly micro-managing President Joe Biden’s schedule in an effort to get the 81-year-old more rest less than a year out from the presidential election, current and former aides apparently told Axios.
Tensions are growing around Biden as fails to acknowledge his limitations, current and former aides told Axios. To get the president more rest in an effort to avoid missteps, Jill Biden and her team are “deeply involved” in the planning of the president’s schedule, Axios reported.
While Jill Biden and her team also watch the president’s schedule to help manage his diet, a White House official downplayed the significance of the dynamic to Axios — noting that the couple keeps “an eye on one another’s schedules for the sake of balance — and they are far from the only couple in the administration who does that.”
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan closely watched former President Ronald Reagan’s schedule, while sometimes using an astrologist to do so, Axios reported. After a near assassination attempt on the former president, Nancy Reagan reportedly began occasionally consulting an astrologist when scheduling events in an effort to avoid such an incident again, the New York Post reported in 2021.
“He and Jill just want to do as much of what they are invited to,” Ted Kaufman, Biden’s longtime friend and former chief of staff, told Axios about the first lady managing the president’s schedule. “Jill didn’t want him to do as much as he wanted to do. And he didn’t want her to do as much as she wanted to do.”
US President Joe Biden listens as First Lady Jill Biden delivers remarks during the 2023 Human Rights Campaign National Dinner at the Washington Convention Center on October, 14, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
“I feel so much younger than my age,” Biden frequently says to aides and friends, Axios reported. Even though he remains confident that he hasn’t aged much, the president has agreed to make some changes such as wearing sneakers and taking shorter steps up Air Force One, according to Axios.
As the 81-year-old president runs for reelection, a large majority of Americans, 77%, were concerned about Biden’s age in September. 54 percent of Biden’s own party believes that the president is “too old” to be in office, a November New York Times/Siena College poll showed. (RELATED: ‘Doesn’t Look A Day Over 90’: Conservatives Celebrate Biden’s Birthday With A Look Back At His Year Of Gaffes)
Throughout the last several months, the president has had several slip-ups that have added to concerns about his age. While thanking firefighters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 11, Biden repeated an exaggerated claim that a small kitchen fire almost killed his wife and burned his house down. Biden has also repeated a debunked story three times since Nov. 6, including twice in one day, about his time taking the Amtrak.
Biden, speaking to firefighters in Philadelphia, once again tells the fake story about almost losing his house in a fire.
It’s all a lie. According to a 2004 AP report, it was “a small fire…contained to the kitchen” and “was under control in 20 minutes.” pic.twitter.com/eWP1Ji7hit
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 11, 2023
Biden once again tells the false story that an Amtrak conductor named Angelo Negri told him how many miles he traveled on the train, which never happened because the guy died before this conversation could have conceivably occurred.
Even outlets like CNN have pointed it out.… pic.twitter.com/pUguZSkl68
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 15, 2023
“Since he first ran for Senate, President Biden has always been a hard worker who is eager to do more than any schedule could accommodate,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told Axios.
The president’s eagerness for a busy schedule “has continued to show itself in the White House,” Bates told the outlet. “Like when he became the first president to visit two war zones not controlled by the U.S. military, [his] late-night discussions with members of Congress as he passed the most groundbreaking legislative agenda in modern history, or this past week as he continued to work around the clock on critical national security priorities long after House Republicans stopped trying to keep up and left Washington on vacation.” (RELATED: ‘All For A Political Agenda’: Vets Blast White House For Bragging About Biden’s Visits To War Zones)