Jill Biden’s memoir tells the story of the night that ended Biden’s campaign
Jill Biden reveals her horror and shock during the 2024 debate in her new memoir, “View from the East Wing.”
Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Joe Biden of being the worst president in American history, calling him “stupid” and “mentally insane” in one of the nation’s toughest campaigns for the White House.
But in her new book, A View from the East Wing, former first lady Jill Biden describes the strangely amicable parting words she received from the 47th president shortly after he was sworn in as her husband’s successor at the 2025 inauguration.
“After it was over and officially announced, the new president said to me, ‘If Joe needs anything, call me!’
Let me be clear: that’s unlikely.
Much of the early coverage of Jill Biden’s memoir, published by Gallery Books on June 2, focused on her chilling account of watching her husband flinch during a presidential debate with President Trump. Joe Biden’s disastrous performance fueled questions about his mental acuity and led to his reluctant withdrawal as the Democratic nominee three weeks later.
But her 275-page book contains other insights and important information. The main points are as follows.
Create an opportunity for awkward small talk
On January 20, 2025, there was no cacophony on the way to the Capitol that day.
As is customary, the outgoing first lady and the incoming first lady shared an official vehicle from the White House to the inauguration venue.
Jill Biden and Melania Trump have barely spoken to each other. First lady Melania Trump did not invite the traditional tea heir to the White House during the transition period following the 2020 election. When Jill extended the invitation after the 2024 election, Melania declined.
Fortunately, their official escort to the inauguration was John Bessent, a law professor and husband of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who chaired the bipartisan committee that planned the ceremony, writes Jill Biden.
He seemed to arrive with a long mental list of safe topics, a blind date strategy that has been around for generations.
Jill Biden wrote that what was sure to be a difficult mission “must have drawn the shortest possible straw.” “My impression is that Amy…told him to give him a little encouragement in his step when we were in the car together.”
“Where is Barron at school?” he began, as Melania looked out the window and gave a short reply. Mr. Bessent was undaunted. Where did Baron live? Was he fun? Did he have many friends? Did they have a dog? Where in Slovenia did she grow up?
Thus ended the two mile journey. It may have felt longer than that.
You’ll never guess which TV network Biden was watching
Joe Biden has resisted calls to withdraw from the presidential race, sparking speculation that he is being shielded from bad news.
That wasn’t accurate, his wife says.
“Joe was addicted to his iPhone and Apple News feed, and his algorithm was choosing the worst of the worst,” she wrote. “He was always keeping an eye on Fox.”
She said there was no “bubble of delusional optimism” as critics charge. “He was exposed to a ton of news every day, almost all of it bad.”
Kamala Harris, a rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and Joe Biden’s running mate, provides some surprisingly critical commentary in this book.
Jill Biden talks about the 2019 primary debate in which Harris made headlines when she challenged Biden’s vote to desegregate schools 40 years ago.
“There was a girl in California who was in the second class of integrated public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris declared. “That little girl was me.”
Jill Biden wrote that the implication was that he was a racist. She called it “hypocritical point-scoring” and a “gotcha moment.”
“The thought bubble above my head was full of curse words,” she recalls.
About that view from the east wing
Nine months after Jill Biden vacated the White House, construction crews demolished the East Wing. The two-story building was reduced to rubble to make way for President Trump’s “big, beautiful ballroom” adorned with gold.
She recounted the history of lost architectural elements, including those put in place by Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR.
“The social office was destroyed. The military office was flattened. What was my office is gone,” she says. “Major landmarks and historical treasures were being treated like extreme HGTV fixer-uppers.” property brothers. ”
She laments that after four years in the White House, the loss felt personal.
