First Lady Jill Biden once again embarrassed herself after forcing the audience to applaud her during her speech on Thursday.
Speaking at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education in Washington, D.C., Jill was discussing bipartisanship before pausing for a moment and expecting cheers from the crowd.
Jill Biden has a Jeb! moment:
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 25, 2023
"I thought you might clap for that!" pic.twitter.com/SXb4UeR6rq
“I’ve visited red states and blue states and I’ve found that the common values that unite us are deeper than our divisions,” she said. “And, um, I thought you might clap for that.”
The First Lady suffered a similarly awkward moment back in 2019 while campaigning for her husband, Joe Biden. In Iowa, Jill told the audience that if Biden were elected president, Americans would say to themselves, “Finally someone is standing up to the NRA and keeping our children and our schools safe.”
“That’s my applause line, come on!” a shocked Jill exclaimed after drawing a few claps.
Jill is known to be an uptight person, as a report from last year revealed that she frequently scolds White House staffers when she believes they have not protected Biden from reporters.
“She pointedly asked the group, which included the president, why nobody stepped in to stop it, according to a person who was in the room. Where was the person, she demanded, who was supposed to end the news conference?” The New York Times reported, referring to an incident when officials failed to cut off Biden’s two-hour-long press conference in January 2022.
She is also incredibly protective of her husband, especially when it comes to his public appearances. Jill was part of the hiring process for his press staff and other senior aides and has become increasingly involved with Biden’s political affairs.
The First Lady also often directs Biden when the president appears lost or confused during public speaking engagements, but this is just a whole new level of helicopter management.
Similar to his husband’s, however, her approval rating is in negative territory, as well. In July of last year, a CNN/SSRS survey found that Jill’s favorability among American adults had dropped 24 points in one year.
The survey, which has tracked the first lady’s performance each year since 2020, pegged her approval rating at 34 percent, down from 58 percent in 2021 and 46 percent in 2020.
