Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa covering President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. government, UN, IMF, World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington and New York.
Jill Biden, the 69-year old unassuming wife of Joe Biden, does not grant media interviews often.
However, while speaking on The View last June, she revealed something fundamental about her husband which seemed to be strikingly different from what the country has witnessed in the past four years with Donald Trump in the White House.
The View is a widely watched American talk show that was conceived by broadcast journalist Barbara Walters. In its 23rd season, the show has aired on ABC as part of the network’s daytime programming block since August 11, 1997.
When The View’s gang of four – comedian Joy Behar, entertainer Whoopi Goldberg, lawyer Sunny Hostin, and television personality Meghan McCain, asked Jill Biden last June what her husband’s presidency may look like should he become president, she used one word: “empathy”.
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Empathy is often associated with humility, care, love and service.
That word, empathy, is never associated with President Trump, who is often described as arrogant and a bully.
Jill Biden told The View hosts that as a child, Joe Biden used to stutter and was bullied in school because of that.
Many people know how it is when people judge them for things out of their control – their eyes, their race, their country, their religion and tribe.
Joe Biden, she explained, also grew up in a family that did not have it all. His dad lost his job and life was hard. Joe was never a privilege kid who had everything he wanted.
Joe also worked in the only all black pool in town in a country still struggling to heal its racial divides.
She said Joe Biden would provide a steady leadership for the country.
Jill Biden concluded that when all is said and done, people would remember her husband as someone who was empathetic to humans.
Dr. Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden is 69 years old. Her husband Joe Biden is 77.
She is an American educator who served as second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to Joe Biden, the 47th vice president of the United States, and the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee for the 2020. As a teacher, she has dedicated her life to caring for kids.
She would be strikingly different from the current First Lady who was a beauty queen.
