First Lady Jill Biden spoke to the National Governors Association on Friday… and the audience was a tough crowd.
The first lady, a longtime educator, told an anecdote about vocational training, and she failed to deliver the punchline.
“As many of you know, I’ve been teaching writing for 40 years,” the first lady recalled. “So one day, a student named Harry who wanted to be an auto mechanic raised his hand. ‘Dr. B.,’ he said. ‘The only thing I need to learn how to write is, ‘NEEDS BRAKES.'”
Some members of the audience laughed too late… and interrupted the first lady’s next sentence.
She hit back, “Well, you finally got it! Come on! Wake up!”
Earlier in that speech, the first lady had urged Congress to “stop the shouting,” moments before her own shouting. She encouraged “lawmakers on the hill” to “turn down the volume” and “actually listen to one another.”
“You said pure partisan politics has never contributed to real solutions, and that we can and should prioritize progress over politics, especially on issues where the majority of Americans agree. That majority an exhausted one,” the first lady told Republican Gov. Phil Scott of Vermont.
“They’re frustrated by a Congress that is often mired in gridlock and by those who too often treat governing as a sport.”
With the anecdote about the auto mechanic, First Lady Biden was pointing out the need for “career-connected learning,” like apprenticeship programs. On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced $200 million in grants for expanding apprenticeships.
The first lady told an almost identical anecdote in 2022.
“As many of you know, I teach writing at a community college, and every semester, I start by reading a poem to my class, called, ‘Where I’m From,’ by George Ella Lyon,” she said at the time, according to the White House transcript.
“And then I say, it’s your turn! And, yes—a sheen of terror washes over many of their faces at the thought of writing their own poem. I can almost hear them internally screaming, ‘No!’ But I show them other students’ examples and we talk it through.”
Take a look —
Jill Biden is not happy when one of her jokes falls flat:
"Well, you finally got it! Come on, wake up!" pic.twitter.com/Is8sB1GSYS
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) February 23, 2024
The Horn editorial team