Michelle Obama’s decision to run for reelection in four years revisited by NPR White House Correspondent Joe Biden

Former First Lady Michelle Obama said she thinks President Joe Biden is “doing a great job,” but stopped short of a full-throated endorsement for another White House run in a recent interview.

Obama that added much of her hesitancy comes from her own experience as first lady, and knowing how important the decision to run for a second term is.

“It’s a personal decision that he and his family have to make. Probably, if I hadn’t been through it, I would feel more cavalier about opining on it,” she said. “But I know it’s a personal call He and Todd should do it, I don’t want to be one of those people who tell them what to do.

Lots of families had a lot of discussions over the dinner table last night, some easy, some hard and some involving major life decisions, such as whether to run for a second term as president. We are joined by NPR White House correspondent, who is reporting on President Biden’s deliberations as to whether he should run for reelection in four years.

At 79, Biden is already the oldest president in American history and, as CNN previously reported, his public schedule has led to questions about how extensive a campaign he’d engage in if he runs.

Observations on Biden’s Thanksgiving with the family at the White House: Why he had a hard time running in 2024

“It’s probably the only job that few people know what it feels like to do, but everybody thinks they know how to do it. Everybody’s a backseat driver when it comes to being Commander in Chief of the most powerful nation on earth,” said Obama. “But it’s a tough job and I think that he’s doing the best he can under some tough circumstances.”

President Biden is spending Thanksgiving with family in Nantucket. He has said he will talk with his family over the holidays about whether to act on his intention to run again in 2024.

KEITH: Anita Dunn, who is a longtime adviser to Biden and is also a top White House official, was asked about it at an event recently put on by the publication Axios.

ANITA DUNN: The family meeting he posed as was actually called by his grandsons was where he decided to run in 2020. Pop needs to have this conversation. The family is going to be very involved in whatever decision he makes because he is who they are.

DUNN: If we weren’t in planning in November of this year, we would be in the political malpractice hall of fame.

MARTÍNEZ: When Donald Trump announced that he was going to run in 2024, I think everyone did a collective look toward D.C. to see exactly what President Biden was planning on doing.

The First Lady and Her Families: An Overview of the Last Two Days of the White House Work for Jill Biden and a Possible Run

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One person familiar with the thinking of the first lady told CNN that she was still mostly skeptical as of early fall. Friends noted a change in the month after the November midterm elections, in which Democrats defy the fates of most first-term presidents.

Even though the last several weeks of high-profile events have left her exhausted, she has started to say the quiet part out loud.

She said this is a busy time of year. I know that you probably have holiday shopping to do, cards to address or cookies to bake. … It’s not easy, is it? Sometimes all these feel like a full-time job, on top of volunteering or organizing or your real full-time job.”

She will be at the White House for Christmas. They will be joined by members of their families,” said Vanessa Valdivia, Jill Biden’s press secretary, who declined further comment on family discussions.

President Biden is well known for engaging in extended deliberations when it comes to major political decisions. The first lady made it clear that the decision is up to her husband, and that he may decide against a run as well.

Biden, who is coming off a physically and emotionally draining period, is heading for her holiday break, said those who know her. Though still leaning into the presumption a second term is in the cards, the last two weeks have nonetheless run her ragged with the obligatory duties that the often-introverted first lady finds most draining, sources close to her said.

In addition to the recent wedding of her granddaughter, and the administration’s first State Dinner, hundreds of invited guests have been streaming through the White House over the last several days for dozens of holiday parties. A dinner was held in the East room of the White House for African nation leaders and their spouses who are in Washington for a summit with Biden and the president. A luncheon at the National Museum of African American History and Culture will be held for the spouses on Wednesday and Thursday, as they were charged with planning and hosting events.

A source familiar with first lady’s schedule says she still has laryngitis, and she is hoarse, due to Biden’s noticeably altered voice. There were three back-to-back parties on Saturday alone.

That voice is the most influential to her husband’s decision making and thus will have to be the loudest when the time does come for him to announce his plans for 2024.

Though more squarely in the “we’re doing it” corner than she was even three months ago, Jill Biden still considers whether her husband, now 80, is up for a bruising battle, according to those familiar with her thinking.

“[Jill Biden] is the one more aware of how the last few years have affected Joe [Biden,]” noted a person with ties to the Biden family. We are all aware of the age issue. She is consistently able to analyze it.

But a deeper analysis of what that would mean for Joe Biden’s legacy has only come more recently for the first lady, said others who have had more insight into conversations.

She is unsure of how to shift that narrative in practice. One of the people who knew her said she didn’t think four more years would help or hurt.

The Bidens: Where are we going? Where do we go? How do we know if we are going to vote for reelection?

The president will make the decision. The chief of staff to the vice president said that he expected it shortly after the holiday. I believe his decision will be to do it.

The president has teased an announcement for months now, publicly saying he intends to run for reelection, often adding in the next breath he will discuss it with his wife and family first.

Joe Biden said at a news conference last month that it was a family decision. “I think everybody wants me to run, but we’re going to have discussions about it.”

With the deadline for the Biden’s to make a decision on where to live in a few weeks, there is still one more chance for her to spend time alone with her husband.

The couple heads to the warmer climes of St. Croix between Christmas and New Year’s; laying in the sun with a book is a favored activity for the first lady.

“Well, I – my guess is – I hope Jill and I get a little time to actually sneak away for a week,” the president said at his November post-election news conference at the White House, where Jill Biden sat in the front row. “And my guess is it would be early next year we make that judgment.”

The vice president told CNN that domestic issues have kept him busy in recent days, adding that nothing is planned as of yet.

“How many 30-year-olds could travel to Poland, get on the train? You can go nine more hours and meet President Zelensky. She affirmatively said that she did. Look at the man. Look what he is doing. He continues to do what he does each and every day.

Why a 40-year-old isn’t competent: Jill Biden and Bernie Sanders Critique of Haley’s Proposal

Jill Biden said she’s not frustrated by all the “will he or won’t he” speculation and wouldn’t confirm whether a decision on a 2024 run has been made or when it might be announced.

The first lady objected to Haley’s proposal during an interview with CNN, which will be broadcast on Monday as part of “CNNPrimetime:Jill Biden Abroad”

Asked if her husband, who would be 82 at his inauguration if he’s reelected, would consider taking such a test, Jill Biden said, “We would never even discuss something like that.”

When she announced her presidential candidacy last month, Haley put forth the proposal. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, slammed the proposal as “absurd” and ageist.

We are fighting discrimination. We’re fighting sexism. We’re fighting homophobia. I think ageism should be fought as well. Don’t trust people to look at people and say that the person is competent. This person’s incompetent.’ Sanders told CBS News last month that a lot of 40-year-olds aren’t particularly competent.

First Lady Biden Revisited in a Primer on East Africa: How Did the First Lady Get There and Where Are We Going?

A severe dry spell and a threat to families’ ability to feed their kids are what First Lady Dr. Biden warned about areas of East Africa.

Her comments came in a series of wide-ranging interviews during a recent five-day trip to Africa that were part of “CNN Primetime: Jill Biden Abroad.” In the interviews, she shared her thoughts about the 2024 presidential campaign, weighed in on the classified documents found at their Wilmington, Delaware, home, and talked about life as first lady, including relationships with the women who held the role in the past.

The first lady said her family has not had one definitive sit-down meeting to discuss a reelection bid as has been typical for the Biden clan in the past, saying instead there’s been a series of rolling conversations with their children and grandchildren.

The first lady also weighed in for the first time on the revelation that classified documents were found at the president’s Wilmington residence and a private office in Washington, DC, which prompted the Justice Department to assign a special counsel to investigate the matter.

“I was really surprised. We had no idea,” she said, noting the documents at their Wilmington home were in the garage. “Believe me, Arlette, I haven’t been, I mean, I don’t have time to go through, you know, the boxes in the garage. They had no idea that they were down there.

The first lady traveled to Africa for visits to Namibia and Kenya to emphasize the United States’ commitment to the region at a time when Russia and China have made in-roads on the continent.

America wants to assure the countries and the leaders of Africa that they are in good hands. You know, we were isolationist, pretty much for the last four years of the last administration,” she said in a critique of former President Donald Trump. We want to say, hey, we are back.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/politics/jill-biden-cnntv/index.html

First Lady Michelle Biden and the Kenyan Drought: A Health Clinic to Promote the Prevention of Malnutrition in the Rural Village Lositeti

The Bush-era initiative focused on HIV/AIDS around the globe is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, and Biden highlighted programs funded through it.

On her final day in Kenya, the first lady looked to shine a spotlight on the severe drought affecting the region. She traveled to the rural village of Lositeti in Kajiado County to tour a health clinic offering services to the community.

Nearly 500 patients, many of them children, received treatment that day, including medical and malnutrition check-ups and nutritional assistance, according to the US Agency for International Development.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/politics/jill-biden-cnntv/index.html

Dr. Jill Biden in Kenya: a humanitarian humanitarian for hunger and famine, and how to find solutions in the world,” she said

“Livestock is dying. There is no water. There’s no grass. There aren’t any crops. The mother can not lactate. They’re not able to feed their children. She said it was a major problem. I am trying to create awareness and ask, how can we find solutions for these major problems?

More than 4 million people in Kenya have insufficient access to food, and that figure is expected to rise in the coming months.

The impact of famine and drought was one of the topics that Biden talked about in 2011. She toured the largest refugee camp in the country, where more than 100,000 people fled to due to famine.

“I think he’ll be remembered as a great humanitarian, I mean, all that he has done to help people,” she said. “He never stopped. He was constantly helping people, whether it was building a home or going into a community.

President and first lady visited with Carter and his wife at their home in Georgia in 2021. Dr. Biden said the two men “talked politics the whole time and what was going on, and they have a real ease in with one another,” and she praised the couple’s seven-decades long marriage.

“If you ever need anything or you want to talk or if there’s something … on your mind, or if I can help you in some way, they’ve all been great,” she said.

“Well, sometimes I don’t, I may not see things from his perspective. Let’s just say it is that way. And so, he offers both sides,” she said. “I’m always better like ‘This person feels this way.” He understands why people feel the way they do. He understands both sides, which is part of his strength.”

I get out every day and that is where it is. I’m in the classroom. She stated that she was out in the United States. “I think it’s a good balance really.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/06/politics/jill-biden-cnntv/index.html

How much influence does the White House give to the first lady? She tells her husband about the secretive travel to Kyiv, Ukraine

Biden, the wife of the president, has said in the past that she is not an adviser to the president, but she wields a significant amount of influence within the White House.

The couple speaks often via text and FaceTime throughout the day as they both maintain busy work and travel schedules with the first lady saying the president “calls a lot.”

Biden said she “said a lot of prayers” when her husband made a highly secretive to Kyiv, Ukraine – an active war zone where the US military has no control – last month.

“I was really worried. One thing and I have to say it with all my heart. She said that her husband was kept safe, and that the strength of the military was one of the things she believed in.

She has worked to help military families through her “Joining Forces” initiative and to end cancer through the “Cancer Moonshot” from her perch at the White House. The first lady is one of the Biden administration’s most often used surrogates at events across the country.

“I think it’s all so interesting and really fulfilling for me as, as a teacher, and as a woman, you know, to see the empowerment of other young women in them getting education,” she said when asked how she balance the two roles. “There’s nothing I can ever give up.”

Biden said her time as an educationist and first lady has helped her build bridges with people while she’s been in the White House.

“One thing Joe taught me is that all politics is personal, and that’s true because once you have these connections, I think you can call on someone when you need help, when you need to be lifted up, when you can support programs,” she said.