As a part of a story that President Joe Biden isn’t fulfilling his duties as commander in chief, some conservative commentators and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed first woman Jill Biden stepped in to run a Cupboard assembly for her husband. Some pointed to a presidential folder as extra proof of her takeover.
“JUST IN: Jill is taking up for Joe Biden on the first White Home cupboard assembly in 11 months,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson posted Sept. 20 on X. A screenshot of an MSNBC video exhibits Jill Biden sitting on the finish of a desk with Cupboard members with a chyron that mentioned, “First woman joins Pres. Biden in Cupboard assembly.
Six minutes later, Johnson shared a photograph of what he known as White Home stationery bearing the presidential seal and signatures from each Bidens. “Stationary on the White Home now has the Presidential Seal flanked by ‘President’ Jill Biden’s signature,” Johnson wrote.
Throughout a Sept. 21 rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump repeated the declare: “I do not know, Is he nonetheless the president? Is he the president? As a result of yesterday his spouse took over the Cupboard assembly, proper? He hasn’t had a gathering in like two years and yesterday they lastly had it and he mentioned, ‘I’m going to let Jill deal with it.’”
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., reshared a tweet from The Blaze, a conservative outlet, in regards to the Cupboard assembly, writing, “Is that this actual? Is that this who’s operating the nation?”
Instagram customers reshared Johnson’s picture, and it was flagged as a part of Meta’s efforts to fight false information and misinformation on its Information Feed. (Learn extra about our partnership with Meta, which owns Fb and Instagram.)
Jill Biden didn’t lead the assembly or sit within the president’s traditional spot; she was offering a scheduled replace on her initiative for girls’s well being analysis. Joe Biden led the assembly. The binder is ceremonial.
Some conservative media retailers criticized her presence on the assembly, partly as a result of it was the primary one the president had held in 11 months, and may be his final earlier than his presidency ends in January.
However Jill Biden shouldn’t be the primary first woman to affix Cupboard conferences to speak about their priorities; others embrace Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton.
The White Home advised PolitiFact that Johnson’s picture depicts a binder with Joe and Jill Biden’s signatures that’s given as a memento to attendees of White Home occasions. It’s not utilized by workers for official functions.
The White Home mentioned first woman Jill Biden and the White Home Gender Coverage Council would lead its Initiative on Ladies’s Well being Analysis in November 2023. It goals to deal with how the U.S. approaches and funds ladies’s well being analysis, which has been traditionally understudied.
On March 18, President Biden signed an govt order to prioritize investments in ladies’s well being analysis and combine it with U.S. federal analysis packages. It additionally known as for brand spanking new analysis on ladies’s midlife well being and assessing unmet must help ladies’s well being research.
Jill Biden has given speeches and hosted conferences for the reason that initiative launched.
In an electronic mail saying her Sept. 20 schedule, the White Home mentioned, “At 11:30 AM, First Girl Jill Biden will be part of on the high of President Biden’s Cupboard assembly to offer an replace on the progress of the White Home Initiative on Ladies’s Well being Analysis.”
It was Jill Biden’s first Cupboard look since Joe Biden took workplace. Cupboard attendees included Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
President Biden began the assembly by saying Congress ought to move a unbroken decision to fund the federal government and keep away from a shutdown.
Then he launched his spouse, who was seated at one finish of the oval desk. (Biden seems to be sitting within the president’s common place within the Cupboard Room, in the course of a protracted facet of the desk along with his again to the home windows.)
“We’re grateful that Jill is right here as we speak,” Biden mentioned. “And right here, throughout earlier administrations, first girls have attended these conferences and on — for particular causes. It’s the primary time Jill has joined us. And it goes to point out how necessary the difficulty is, what she’s about to talk to, to each of us. As we speak, on the high of our assembly, Jill goes to present an replace on the White Home initiative to basically change the strategy and fund, on how we strategy and fund ladies’s well being providers.”
Jill then started her remarks.
“In February, (Superior Analysis Initiatives Company for Well being), the company Joe created to pursue breakthrough well being analysis, at lightning velocity, launched its first-ever Dash for Ladies’s Well being. The $100-million funding will fund improvements that can be life-changing for girls,” Jill Biden mentioned. “Then, a month later, NIH (the Nationwide Institutes of Well being) dedicated one other $200 million to fund interdisciplinary ladies’s well being analysis, for instance, how menopause impacts coronary heart well being, mind well being, and bone well being.”
She additionally spoke a few new joint effort by the Protection Division and Veterans Affairs to enhance analysis for girls within the navy and for girls veterans, and new funding from the Well being and Human Providers Division to deal with ladies’s psychological well being and substance use remedy.
The primary woman spoke for about 4 ½ minutes.
After she spoke, reporters requested President Biden whether or not it was life like to get a cease-fire take care of Israel. Then aides ushered the press out of the room.
Our ruling
Social media posts claimed that Jill Biden was operating President Biden’s Cupboard assembly and that her signature now seems on official presidential correspondence.
The claims about her presence are overblown.
The primary woman joined Biden’s Sept. 20 Cupboard assembly to debate updates on the Ladies’s Well being Initiative, a White Home endeavor she has headed since its creation in 2023. First girls have joined Cupboard conferences prior to now.
The White Home advised PolitiFact that the binder that exhibits the primary woman’s signature together with Biden’s is a memento sometimes given to White Home occasion attendees and isn’t utilized by workers for official functions.
We charge this declare False.
