It was bound to happen. Jill Biden spoke out about the friendship she and her husband Joe have with Senator Lindsey Graham. According to her, it no longer exists.
Dr. Biden ( she has a Doctor of Education in educational leadership) was asked on CNN about the solid friendship Joe Biden and Lindsey Graham have referenced in the past. In the pre-Hunter Biden and Burisma days, Biden often spoke of Republicans he can work with and Graham and John McCain were always at the top of the list. Biden sometimes points to the fact that he thinks some Republicans are decent people and condescendingly puts himself out there as someone who can work with the other side of the aisle on legislation. So, when Lindsey Graham, Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, said that it would be only fair for Hunter to be called as a witness if John Bolton was called by Democrats during the impeachment trial, it was clear the Bidens would not be besties with Graham for long.
“Well, you know, Lindsey — I don’t know what happened to Lindsey. And we used to be great friends and friends with John McCain,” Biden said on CNN’s “New Day” Monday, referring to the late senator. “I mean, we traveled together with the Foreign Relations Committee. We’ve had dinner, you know, and now he’s changed.”
Asked by CNN’s John Berman if she still considers Graham a friend, Biden responded, “You know, it’s hard when you, I don’t know, consider somebody a friend and then they’ve said so many things, so many negative things. And it’s — that’s been a little hurtful.”
Graham didn’t wait for the impeachment trial to begin, though, before he voiced concern about Hunter Biden’s appointment to the Burisma board. Back in October, he said that action just didn’t pass the smell test. Remember, Hunter Biden doesn’t speak Ukrainian, isn’t an expert on Ukraine history or government, and has no background in the energy sector. Clearly, Hunter was brought in as a way to gain access to his father, then the Vice-President of the United States. Hunter even admitted as much in a television interview – if his last name wasn’t Biden, he wouldn’t have secured that sweet gig.
“I think this is a defining moment in the Biden campaign. Joe Biden is truly a friend. … I think he’s a good man. But what Hunter Biden did was wrong at every level,” Graham told Fox News anchor Bret Baier in October. “I think what Hunter Biden did does not pass the smell test.”
Just last weekend, Graham doubled-down and called for investigations to begin as soon as the impeachment trial is over.
Over the weekend, Graham vowed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will look into the Bidens after the impeachment trial. He said these investigations will occur after the Senate acquits Trump, which is expected to occur on Wednesday.
“I’m gonna bring in State Department officials and ask them, ‘Why didn’t you do something about the obvious conflict of interest Joe Biden had?” Graham said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The Bidens are taking it personally. That is what happens with the entitled political class. Getting by with winks and nods is the status quo, no matter how shady a deal may be. Dr. Jill apparently thinks Hunter is off-limits. She’s wrong, though. Hunter, and Joe, for that matter, should be investigated. Biden was the point man for the Obama administration in Ukraine. It all smells really fishy. So, now the friendship is over. At least for now or until the Bidens need Graham’s help in Washington, D.C. Does anyone think that if Joe Biden should somehow win the presidency that Lindsey Graham would not be considered a pal again?
Jill Biden is more visible than she’s ever really been. She’s taken time off from her teaching job at a community college in Virginia – she was the first Second Lady to hold a full-time job while her husband was in office – and has been a fixture in Iowa. She has been sounding more like a co-president than a candidate’s spouse, too. She weighed in on Joe’s choice of Secretary of Education. She made a rather weird statement that if Joe’s elected – “we” are going to get rid of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
“We’re going to have a secretary of Education who has been in the classroom,” she said. “These are all things that I have personally seen and have been important to me as a teacher.”
“When he’s elected president, when you look right next to him, there will be standing a teacher,” she added.
Jill Biden, a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College, praised her husband’s education plan, saying it will “raise up the profile of teachers and celebrate who they are.”
Joe Biden even said that the “first thing” he’ll do as president is to make sure the Secretary of Education is not DeVos, and the person must be a teacher.
“First thing as president of the United States, not a joke, first thing I will do is make sure that the secretary of Education, not Betsy DeVos, is a teacher,” Biden said at a National Education Association forum in Houston in July.
“So the press doesn’t get confused, I promise I’m not going to appoint my wife,” he added. “She’d be a good one.”
The odd part of Jill Biden’s lashing out at DeVos is that DeVos wouldn’t be staying on as a member of the Biden administration. DeVos is a Republican. Incoming presidents don’t keep the former administration’s cabinet, except in rare individual choices. For instance, Bob Gates served in both the Bush and Obama administrations.
It sounds as though Dr. Jill will have a say in cabinet-level nominations, doesn’t it? Remember both Rosalyn Carter and Hillary Clinton also holding such power, though they were not elected officeholders themselves? Perhaps Jill will sit in on high-level meetings as Carter and Clinton did. Perhaps that is why Jill Biden’s profile is being raised. Or, more likely, it is because her husband needs all the help he can get. He’s coming out of Iowa badly wounded (though we still don’t have the numbers from the Iowa caucuses as I write this Tuesday morning) and Jill is trying her hardest to convince voters that Joe may not really be a favorite but he needs to win the nomination because he can beat Trump, or something.
Biden is experiencing his third failed attempt to secure the Democrat nomination for president. He may surprise us and hang in there to be a serious contender but he’s off to a rocky start. Sanders looks to be the winner in Iowa and likely the winner in New Hampshire. We’ll see if Jill can help him get back up on top.
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