Biden's Cabinet members praised the president for his “exceptionally effective” leadership and believe he is still fit to serve after he handed the reins of a Cabinet meeting to his wife, Jill Biden, just days ago.
Among the 10 Cabinet officials who sent statements to Fox News Digital, there was general agreement of confidence in Biden's leadership and his ability to continue fulfilling his mandate as president.
“President Biden remains an exceptionally effective president, and his focus on delivering results, like record job creation, significant infrastructure development, and increased domestic manufacturing, is something he demonstrates every time we interact,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Fox News Digital.
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The last time President Biden held a Cabinet meeting was in October 2023. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo went a step further, calling Biden “one of the most outstanding presidents in American history and he continues to lead our country effectively and with a steady hand.”
“As someone who is in the room when the President meets with the Cabinet and foreign leaders, I can tell you that he is an incisive and extraordinary leader,” Raimondo said.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, one of Biden's staunchest defenders, said Biden “has done more as president for this country than any president I've worked with since 1992.”
“So yes, not only can he do the job, he's been doing it,” she said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “And we're fortunate to have someone who continues to use all of his experience to take us further. If you think back to where we were four years ago, in the depths of a pandemic, Americans losing their jobs, Americans losing their health care. Today, more Americans are employed than ever before. Today, more Americans have health coverage than ever before. No president in the history of this country has put 700 million vaccines in the arms of Americans to keep them alive and healthy. The result? Our economy is healthy.”
“Is he in shape? He's showing it,” Becerra added.
Biden’s apparent decline in mental acuity first made headlines over the summer, before his poor debate performance against former President Trump. Less than a month after the June debate, Biden faced pressure from his Democratic base to drop out of the race and allow Vice President Kamala Harris to run as the party’s nominee.
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Biden cabinet members rushed to his defense. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“During President Biden's tenure, Americans have benefited from his leadership and experience. On Friday, he led a productive Cabinet meeting and clearly laid out his expectations for the coming months,” acting Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Adrianne Todman told Fox News Digital.
“President Biden has charged us not only to continue to secure the historic levels of funding he secured, but also to ensure that those funds are used to help the American people. I look forward to continuing to work with the President and the entire administration to expand affordable housing for all,” she said.
Biden He called his cabinet together on Friday for the first time since Oct. 2, 2023, this time with the first lady joining him to discuss the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research.
The president explained Jill Biden's presence there by saying, “Here and in previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings for specific reasons. This is the first time Jill has been with us and it shows how important the topic is that she is about to speak about.”
The New York Post reported that Jill Biden, sitting at the head of the Cabinet table, “read from a binder on maternal health initiatives for four and a half minutes after her husband spoke for only two minutes earlier in the meeting.”
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U.S. First Lady Jill Biden speaks as she attends her first Cabinet meeting during the administration of her husband, President Joe Biden, at the White House September 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. ((Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))
The president traditionally sits in the center of the table and Cabinet members sit in the order in which their departments were founded. The last sitting first lady to attend her husband's Cabinet meeting appears to have been Hillary Clinton.
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The amount of influence the first lady has on Joe Biden, and therefore his administration, has been a frequent source of controversy, with numerous commentators taking to social media to criticise his presence at the meeting.
The New York Post said Jill Biden is “considered by insiders to be the most influential first lady since Edith Wilson, who strictly controlled access to her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919.”
Fox News Digital's Alexander Hall and Greg Norman contributed to this report.
