Michael Larosa, the former press secretary to First Lady Jill Biden, appeared on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Tuesday, July 9, and, during the interview with Mr. Watters, spoke out about the first lady and commented on her role in keeping President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential race despite his advanced age and seeming cognitive issues, matters that were on full display during the June 27 presidential debate.
Watters, asking Larosa about Dr. Jill, asked why she might be so insistent on keeping her elderly president in the race even as many others encourage him to drop out. He asked, “Tell me a little bit about Dr. Jill. We don’t know her the way you know Dr. Jill. She apparently is telling Joe, ‘Stay in,’ and isn’t listening to the press or anyone at all. Why?”
Larosa told Watters, “So, one thing that was so interesting about the George Stephanopoulos interview when he said that if, if we lose, he would have given it his all. And you’ve got a lot of flak for that, right? It reminded me so much what happened in 87’ because as soon as he dropped out that same day, he was going into a hearing to chair the board hearings.”
He continued, “And this really was gonna be, like, the next step for political rehab for him. Well, Jill was with him in the anti-room and she heard him say something very similar like, ‘Well, at least I can go focus on this hearing now’ and she cut him off and took him by the shoulders and just kind of hold by the lapels and said, ‘No, you have to go f-ing win. And, uh, because she knew that was sort of the retaliation moment for him.”
Larosa then added, speaking about that campaign and how it impacted the Biden family’s view of politics, “And, you know, they were driven from that campaign, and I think they learned a long time ago they were gonna let line quotes or polls or pundits really push them out ever again. And I think that, that moment was scarring for them, Jesse.”
Continuing, Larosa spoke about how the end of the campaign was “devastating,” and so they treated it as a “learning lesson.” He said, “You know, she had never had his character or his integrity attacked before. He had been groomed to run for president for 15 years. He was our next, he was a great rising hope, and the way that campaign ended was pretty devastating for them. But it was a huge learning lesson in sort of political combat. You know, she’s from Philly like you, so she likes to fight.”
Watters, responding, joked about those from Philly liking a fight, then switched tacks to discussing the “elder abuse” claim about Dr. Jill. He asked, “Yeah, we love to fight. We like to scrap. And we’ll just do it for fun. We don’t care. Did you hear Michael Moore at the top accuse Dr. Jill Biden of elder abuse? What would Dr. Jill say to that?”
Larosa, for his part, attempted to push back on those charges, saying, “What she would say is that she hates politics, but she loves him. And he never got in the way of her career, she wasn’t gonna get in the way of his. They just never did that with their, both of their aspirations. It just wasn’t, it’s not a ‘Leave It to Beaver’ 1950s ro— you know, comedy for that. They’re pretty independent. They left, they lived independent professional lives outside of each other’s shadows.”
Making much that same point, he added, “So, she would never… she would probably not — this is his decision, you know? She, Jill and the advisors and his sister and his family are probably there and giving advice. But Jill alone won’t make this decision, and I don’t know if Democrats really want her to be making the decision for the party. And I don’t think she would want that decision. I don’t think she’s comfortable with it,” Larosa told Watters.
Watch the interview here:
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