by Frank Holmes, reporter
Americans have long suspected that President Joe Biden isn’t calling the shots in his administration, but they wondered: Who’s really making the decisions?
Thanks to two major leaks in the media, we can not only tell you it’s true—and that Biden may not be the only major Democratic politician who outsources his decisions to the same person.
The inside scoop came directly from the president’s closest adviser: His wife, “Dr.” Jill Biden.
The Associated Press asked the first lady if her husband would announce that he’s seeking a second term in the White House and, if so, which people made that decision for him. “Of course he’ll listen to me,” Jill Biden said, “because we’re a married couple.”
Mrs. Biden said her word will set the course for Mr. Biden, “because I’m his wife.”
“He’s not done. He’s not finished what he’s started,” she insisted.
The first lady sounded equally decisive in another interview with CNN around the same time.
“Is there any chance at this point that he’s not going to run?” asked CNN. “Not in my book,” replied Jill. “I’m all for it, of course.”
While Washington players love to say they exert deciding influence over the president, this time her words were confirmed by the commander-in-chief on Sunday’s episode of ABC’s “This Week.”
“Let me ask the question everyone is asking,” reporter David Muir asked Biden, “Are you running?” “Well, apparently someone interviewed my wife today I heard,” Biden replied. “I’ve got to call her and find out.”
When Muir asked him if he thought he might be too old to be president when he’s four years away from 90, Biden said, “The only thing I can say is, watch me.”
Another Democrat people watched to see if he’s up to the job is John Fetterman, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania.
Fetterman suffered a debilitating stroke on the campaign trail last year on his way to pulling out a win over “Doc Oz”…but Joe Biden has hinted that Fetterman’s wife is really running things behind the scenes.
Last October, Biden told Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, she will be a “great, great lady in the Senate.” She soon posted pictures of herself in front of his Senate office…with him cropped out of them.
Now, it looks like Mrs. Fetterman just made her first power move to maintain her leverage over her disabled husband.
Shortly after a second stroke, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression. Knowing her husband was in the hospital in deep depression, in the hours of his greatest need, Gisele Fetterman piled the kids into the car and drove…all the way to Canada.
“The kids were off from school and media trucks circled our home. I did the first thing I could think of…pack them in the car and drive,” she said. “We drove straight into … Canada,” she said—not to visit her husband and their father in the hospital.
No wonder he was depressed!
We drove straight into … Canada (and lovely Buffalo NY) (Pro Tip: always have passports ready just in case you have to run away 😅) We talked about lots of hard things and how we will all have to face hard things. About the need to be gentle … with all and with ourselves. pic.twitter.com/0PWQXHrbqT
— Gisele Barreto Fetterman (@giselefetterman) February 24, 2023
The senator’s depression had his wife down in the dumps—because as long as he’s in the hospital, she can’t influence his Senate vote.
That may explain why she’s so fierce in insisting he’s absolutely at his peak… something she and Jill Biden share in common.
Jill Biden recently said her 80-year-old husband exudes strength and vitality.
“Look at the man. Look what he’s doing. Look what he continues to do each and every day,” she told CNN.
Critics say they are watching him, and that’s what has them nervous.
“The Democrat Establishment sees what we see and they know what we know: Biden is fading. He’s unsteady, and he’s faltering before our eyes. No serious person believes that he’s capable of making his own decisions about complex decisions of foreign or domestic policy,” said Laura Ingraham on Monday.
Wary Democratic critics have mounted an increasingly public pressure campaign to see Biden give up his quest to be a two-term president.
“In private, of course, many elected Democrats say Biden is too old to run again and that they wish he’d step away,” wrote Mark Leibovich in The Atlantic, one of the most influential ruling class journals, on Monday.
A fourth Biden run for president could prove “potentially catastrophic for the Democratic Party.” Former Clinton lawyer Greg Craig said in The New York Times that if Biden runs in 2024, he should let the Democratic National Convention pick his running mate…just in case he doesn’t finish his term.
Biden was originally supposed to decide on running his reelection bid around Christmas or New Year’s, then make his announcement around the time of his State of the Union address.
Now, his close advisers say he’s more likely to make an official announcement sometime in April.
But the matter appears to be settled: Biden’s wife says he is going to run for a second term, ending after his 86th birthday and locking out an impatient generation of Democratic governors who are chomping at the bit to enter the presidential race.
“Sorry, Gavin (Newsom). Sorry, J.B (Pitzer). Sorry, Gretchen (Whitmer),” said Laura Ingraham. “You’re gonna have to wait your turn.”
And at least two of them will have to make sure their wives give them the go-ahead first.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”