Timing of Jill Biden’s third Vogue cover questioned amid calls for Joe Biden to stand aside

The First Lady has prompted criticism for appearing on the cover of Vogue magazine for the third time, amid calls for her husband to stand aside following his frail debate performance.

The latest issue of Vogue, with Jill Biden on the cover.

First Lady Jill Biden has come under fire for appearing on the cover of Vogue magazine, only days after her husband’s disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump prompted allegations Dr Biden has been pushing her husband to stay in the race to maintain her grip on the trappings of office.

“If you want to know what power feels like, try to get yourself driven around in a motorcade. Flashing police chaperone lights form a perimeter as you blaze down an empty highway, waiting cars backed up on entry ramps as you pass. It’s as if the world is holding its breath. For you,” the long, effusive feature article began.

In a last-minute note added to the online version of the story, which included a glamorous cover photograph of the First Lady in a white tuxedo gown, Dr Biden told the esteemed fashion publication that “we would not let those 90 minutes define the four years he’s been president”, referring to last week’s disastrous debate.

“We will decide our future. We will continue to fight,” she added, speaking to the publication from Camp David, where the Biden family had been gathered for another photo shoot, on 30th June.

The latest issue of Vogue, with Jill Biden on the cover.

Jill Biden on the Vogue cover in August 2021.

The gushing story, running to many thousands of words, by journalist Maya Singer cast Dr Biden as a down to earth Pennsylvania woman, a selfless human rights campaigner and passionate teacher, also revealing she was “very good at meeting a moment” and capable of a “remarkably swift wardrobe change”.

“I see her as a first lady in the Eleanor Roosevelt mould — getting out into the community, making sure those voices are getting heard in Washington,” Dr Jane O’Meara Sanders, wife of Senator Bernie Sanders, told the magazine.

It was Dr Biden’s third Vogue cover, including one that was digital only, in stark contrast to former First Lady Melania Trump, who was never invited to appear. Michelle Obama also appeared on the cover three times but over eight years.

“Here’s the thing: Jill Biden is personable, a great hang, but she’s not immediately personal. I respect that about her,” Singer wrote.

“When you’ve spent your life as an educator, grounded in the needs of students, it affects you …. She gets it,” Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest labour union, told Vogue.

Dr Biden, 73, has emerged as her husband’s number one champion and perhaps the only person capable of convincing him to step aside for a younger candidate, after a sharp drop in public support for the president since last week’s debate and a chorus of calls from left-wing media figures and Democratic Party donors for change.

“Joe isn’t just the right person for the job. He’s the only person for the job,” she told donors at a campaign event in Long Island, New York over the weekend.

The unexpected cover story, based on an interview from April, prompted a deluge of online criticism for its timing and contents.

“Melania Trump is an actual super model who speaks 5 languages but she’s NEVER been on the cover of Vogue. Jill Biden commits vicious elder abuse on the world stage and now has two Vogue covers to show for it. Congrats Jill, you’ll be great in The Devil Wears Depends,” said conservative comedian Jimmy Failla.

Melania Trump is an actual super model who speaks 5 languages but she's NEVER been on the cover of Vogue. Jill Biden commits vicious elder abuse on the world stage and now has two Vogue covers to show for it. Congrats Jill, you'll be great in "The Devil Wears Depends."

— Jimmy Failla (@jimmyfailla) July 1, 2024

Conservative journalist Ian Miles Cheong said in an X post “Vogue’s latest issue says the quiet part out loud. Jill is who’s really in charge”.

Vogue’s latest issue says the quiet part out loud. Jill is who’s really in charge. pic.twitter.com/HJoNHjn77v

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 1, 2024

Singer observed the First Lady first hand on the campaign trail in Minnesota and elsewhere and later interviewed her in the East Wing of the White House “drinking honey-ginger tea … out of dainty china cups”.

“There’s a version of political power as Jill Biden embodies it, and as she expressed it at the Women for Biden event in Bloomington. This is power from the ground up, built on listening and coalition building,” the article said.