Jill Biden, 69, the wife of Democratic 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden, will be delivering a Livestream address on Tuesday as part of the Democratic National Convention. Her convention speech is set for 10 p.m., according to the program for the event.
Jill is a prankster, It’s the first thing most of her friends and former aides say when asked about her character. She once sneaked into a close aide’s birthday party dressed as catering staff and surprised him with a drink. She has dressed up as the Grinch to toy with colleagues during Christmas. And she likes to put on a red wig with a bob to pop up unnoticed at events or make her husband, Joe Biden, laugh.
Jill Biden married the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in 1977 after they met in 1975. That’s more than four years after his first wife and young daughter were killed in a car accident. She helped raise his surviving sons, Beau and Hunter, before giving birth to daughter Ashley in 1981.
As Joe Biden travel back and forth while serving as a senator, Jill built a career as a teacher, ultimately earning two master’s degrees and then a doctorate in education from the University of Delaware in 2007.
Along the way, former coworkers say, Jill, became one of her husband’s most valuable political advisers, someone whose opinion was paramount in most of his biggest decisions, both political and personal. She was skeptical of his 1988 presidential campaign but pushed him to run again in 2008, according to her memoir.
After Joe Biden became the presumptive nominee this year, she played a prominent role in auditioning many of the vice presidential candidates, appearing with them at various events. During a recent interview on CBS, Jill Biden acknowledged that she and her husband “talked about the different woman candidates.”
“But it’s gotta be Joe’s decision,” she added.
Earlier this month, Jill predicted many Republicans would cross party lines to vote for her husband, during an appearance on “The View.”
“As you know, Republicans are very tribal and Trump says that he has a 96 percent approval rating in the Republican Party,” co-host Meghan McCain had asked. “He is predicting a big win because of the silent majority, which we know from 2016 does exist. How can you counter what he’s saying?”
“Meghan, I have a little bit of a different slant on it,” Jill responded. “From what I’ve seen, a lot of Republicans are going to vote for Joe.
“You know, and they’ve been saying it,” she added. “Maybe they’re not saying it publicly. But when I was out there on the trail, a lot of people came up to me and said, ‘Jill, I’m a Republican, but I’m going to vote for your husband because he’s a moderate and he’s a steady leader and we believe in Joe.’
“And so, I think, you know, of course, Trump has his supporters. But I think a lot of his supporters have become disillusioned, especially in the way he’s handled this [coronavirus] pandemic,” she went on.
She is the oldest of four daughters.
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