Jay Weber Show transcript 5-12-25
I love this story:how furious some democrats are getting over Joe and Jill Biden’s attempt to ‘make a comeback’ or sell their ‘post-presidency’ story.
The cynics are calling it the Biden rehabilitation tour...but that’s basically what it is: this is Joe and Jill Biden trying to remain relevant. Trying feverishly to craft their collective legacy before joe expires...and jill sinks into anonymity.
So, they’re out doing interviews on the view and with the BBC.
Word is...they are trying to sell a ‘tell all’ book...because no publishers came running to them with 20-million-dollar book deals the way they ran to the Obamas and the Clintons.
Poor ole joe.
And- as Mark Halperin reported on Friday on his two-way podcast: ‘Biden inc.’ has dried up. This family racket that the Bidens had going to enrich themselves by selling access to joe and the federal government- that has naturally dried up- too, now that Joe’s out of office and doesn’t have the power to do any favors for anybody.
But- you wonder: how much more money could the Bidens possibly need...to get themselves both comfortably ‘in the grave’? There’s a point at which you’ve got to have enough money. Isn’t there?
Still- these two were the ultimate climbers and creatures of DC- and so- I suppose the logical play for them is to try to ‘get theirs’ in their post-presidency, too.
The problem is- Biden was such a horrible president...and he and Jill were both such liars and frauds when it came to joe’s cognitive and physical decline...
That there are no ‘warm feelings’ for these people- even within their own party.
It’s remarkable, really.
I knew that the truth in Washington DC was that no one really liked the Bidens. Everyone knew they were corrupt. Everyone had a reason to dislike them.
But- a former president and first lady would normally have ‘some group’ of continuing well-wishers and political friends who’d keep propping them up. For heaven’s sake- even Hillary Clinton has those!
But no.
No one’s rushing to defend the Bidens.
Instead, everyone on the left and within the democrat party wants them to go away.
I hate the term ‘triggered’.... but it seems to genuinely fit here in describing the reaction the left has to the few interviews Bidens did last week.
And-of course- in those interviews, all they did was lie, anyway.
The Biden’s also blamed racism and sexism for Kamala Harris’ loss- rather than admit she was a poor candidate whom they- themselves-had saddled the party with as a big ‘screw you’ after Nancy Pelosi forced joe out of the race.
No one’s ever going to get the truth out of the Bidens. They’ve been fabulists and gas lighters for their entire adult lives.
and see- every time joe and jill go out and do an interview- they are reminding the American people of a few things-including how much Biden sucked as a president.
How dishonest democrats of his era are-
And how competent and positive trump and republicans are-by contrast.
I would love nothing more than for Joe Biden to continue to be ‘the example’ of what a ‘democrat is’...
But as a long-time analyst- I will point out that we are starting to get into the reasons that- for virtually all of American history- once a president was done with his tenure-he’d return to a life of relative anonymity.
Very early on-it was because these were older, established men who were traveling back to their own estates....in their own states...in an era in which a carriage ride to Washington DC was a long and potentially dangerous journey.
Then- in the more modern eras of travel...presidents retired to anonymity -again-because they were mostly old men of retirement age...and the view on life was that they had ‘earned’ a quiet retirement after a lifetime of working.
And then-in the most modern era- the belief was that you retired to a quiet anonymity as a president so that you weren’t constantly second-guessing the new guy...or making his presidency harder than it needed to be...by still hanging around‘as an option’ to this current president. Or as someone who ‘knew better’ than this current president...etc.
Sincerely.
There used to be a code here-that George W. Bush has kept...and Bill Clinton and jimmy carter ‘largely kept’......even as Barrack Obama-has not.
George W is very ‘old school’ and almost never chimes in. Bill and jimmy would only occasionally ‘chime in’. But barrack has continually chimed in- which might be the byproduct of being such a young man-as he left office. He simply had more time to ‘go away’ and then resurfaced.
But -it is. It is- best for this republic if the ‘formers’ just shut up and go again. It is a system that has served us well for 250 years. And it’s one that Obama and Biden should honor. But so should Hillary ...as a former first lady...and Al Gore and Mike Pence as former vice presidents.
As for the other ‘losers? Whatever.
All sorts of people run for president and never make it-and so-whatever their opinions are- don’t really matter. If Chris christie and Marianne Williamson want to blather on and take money for appearances...or be talking heads on CNN. Whatever.
But for those who have been in the presidency or vice presidency? It’s best if they just shut up and go away.
Unless they plan to run again, of course. Kammy’s still an ‘active’ possibility for president.Mike Pence isn’t, nor can he believe he’s one.
It’s a fine line and it’s all voluntary. We don’t need official rules or a law on it.
But-it should be noted that there used to be a basic decency associated with the question of ‘how to be a former president’.
And there still should be. And under those rules, Joe Biden should have the basic decency to shut up and go away. Disappear for a while...and then reenter public life in a different way...if he still wants to...down the road.
But-you’ve gotten ahead of me here: when it comes to joe Biden...there is no ‘down the road’. He’s in his mid-80s and failing. Is final act is ‘now’. And so, he and jill could have chosen to handle that ‘final act’ gracefully...and simply gone back to enjoying what’s left of their lives privately and with loved ones...
Or...they could choose to spend those final days trashing trump and trying to rewrite their own failures and crummy legacy.
My take: Biden really should have the decency to fade into the background here- as should jill-for the good of their country-
And for the good of their party.
Because these critics on the left aren’t wrong: the bidens are a constant reminder of four years of terrible decision-making and failures-
Which still define the democrat brand- because they are still so new and raw.
Joe Biden doesn’t have the time for that- and in truth? -neither he nor Jill ‘care about other people’.
The Biden’s don’t have the ‘love of humanity’ that jimmy and Rosalynn Carter did. And this isn’t me ‘being mean’.
This is me ‘being honest’. The Bidens have always, always, always been about ‘themselves’ and ‘their family’. They’ve never given a tinker’s dam about other people and their families.
He and jill aren’t going to be outward humanitarians in their remaining years. They have neither the inclination. Or the energy.
This is a man who was ‘in retirement’ while he was in the white house: Biden spent 40 percent of his presidency in Delaware at the family beach house.
He didn’t get up until 8:30 or 9 in the morning. And then. Didn’t get ‘to work’ in the oval until about ten. His staff tried hard to limit him to one public event each day.... because they wanted him ‘back in the residence’ by 4 or 5 pm if they could manage it. Because he was a tired old man with increasing dementia.
Let’s not pretend that Joe Biden was ever ‘really’ the decision-maker on most things-
Which makes all of this an even worse indictment on his handlers and today’s democrats in general: they had a chance to run the country the way they wanted to- because they had an absentee figure head-
And look at the way they screwed it all up. At every turn. In every decision. In every way.
And a failing, mumbling, stumbling Joe Biden continuing to appear in public is a reminder of that.
photo credit: Fox News
audio version of the segment here > Democrats want Joe and Jill Biden to just go away