Loyal First Lady? Or wedded to her own ambition?

Jill Biden is fighting back against claims that her ambition is fuelling her husband’s campaign.

Jill Biden speaks during a barbeque for active-duty military families at the White House. Picture: AFP

Jill Biden is fighting back against claims that her ambition is fuelling her husband’s campaign, embarking on a 24-hour, three-state tour to spread the message that the family’s sole aim is to stop Donald Trump.

She has been criticised for a “clumsy” show of support for the President during the disastrous June 27 debate, and for an ill-timed Vogue cover, in which she stared imperiously into the lens and declared: “We will decide our future ... we will not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been President. We will continue to fight.”

However, her determination to keep the drum beating for Biden, 81, has been seized on by Republicans, who are painting her as a Lady Macbeth character. Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News anchor, called her a “power-hungry aspirant” running a “shadow presidency”. The Drudge Report wrote: “Cruel Jill clings to power.”

Harriet Hageman, a congresswoman for Wyoming, said she was guilty of “elder abuse” for “rolling President Biden out on stage to engage in a battle of wits while unarmed”.

Even her first husband, Bill Stevenson, chimed in, saying: “I just don’t understand why she is so adamant about defending him and keeping him in the race since it appears that he’s struggling.”

In a TV interview on Monday, Trump himself insisted: “I think Jill would like to see him stay, she’s having a good time.”

Jill, 73, has responded by painting herself as a supportive wife rather than someone who had simply grown accustomed to the trappings of the White House. “Joe has made it clear that he’s all in,” she said. “And just as he has always supported my career, I am all in too.”

Those who know her insist that she has no personal desire for power. Elizabeth Alexander, her communications director, said she saw her role as “an act of service” to the nation, rather than the wielding of power.

But many are asking why, as her husband’s closest confidante and most trusted sounding board, she does not urge him to drop out, for the sake of his health and legacy.

She has not been shy about confronting Biden’s political ambitions in the past. In the early years of their relationship, she was unenthusiastic about his political aspirations, refusing his first three marriage proposals and then vetoing a 2003 presidential run.

This time she insists it is different because of what is at stake. “President Biden wakes up every morning ready to work for you,” she told a crowd of military veterans and their families in Wilmington, North Carolina, noting how Trump allegedly called those who died in the line of duty “losers” and “suckers”.

It was a “business as usual” approach, but the strain was evident. Normally a relaxed figure who takes pride in her calm demeanour, she snapped, with a smile, at journalists demanding her take on Biden’s battle for survival. “Why are you screaming at me?” she said, pausing before boarding her plane. “You know me. Don’t scream at me. Just talk.”

She did not, however, answer any questions.

THE TIMES