Soon-to-be First Lady Jill Biden defended her doctorate degree in education during a Thursday appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Biden’s 2007 doctoral dissertation became the subject of heated controversy after Wall Street Journal columnist Joseph Epstein wrote an op-ed suggesting that she stop using the “doctor” credential in her new role as first lady.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson and others have criticized not just the use of the title by a non-medical doctor, but also the dissertation itself as riddled with errors. However, Biden’s defenders have been quick to insist she has every right to use the title.
Panning Biden as either needing “reading glasses” or “borderline illiterate,” Carlson went over several errors in the dissertation during a Wednesday night “Tucker Carlson Tonight monologue.”
Stephen Colbert asked Biden about the ongoing controversy during a joint interview with President-elect Joe Biden.
WATCH:
TONIGHT! @StephenAtHome sits down with President-elect @JoeBiden and @DrBiden and they respond to the attacks on her doctorate degree. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/HMDGxoaq27
— A Late Show (@colbertlateshow) December 18, 2020
“That was such a surprise,” Biden said. “And it was really the tone of it that I think that, you know, he called me ‘kiddo.’ One of the things I’m most proud of is my doctorate. I mean, I worked so hard for it.”
Biden added that she was “so grateful” to those who came out in support of her. (RELATED: ‘She’s A Doctor Of Education, Which Means Basically Nothing’: Tucker Carlson Pans Biden Family’s ‘Deep Class Insecurity’)
“I’ve been suppressing my Irish-ness for a long time,” Joe Biden added later after commenting about how hard his wife worked for her degree.