Vogue’s badly-timed Jill Biden cover story

Oh dear. Vogue magazine’s August cover dropped this morning and it transpires that its editorial team has decided on a rather curious cover star in the form of, er, Jill Biden. The first lady has been revealed as the central focus of the summer cover a mere four days after her husband gave a pitiful performance at the presidential candidate debate on Thursday. Talk about bad timing…

President Biden stumbled and mumbled his way through his disastrous debate with Donald Trump last week — so much so that media outlets across the world questioned just how the president could remain the Democratic Party’s choice for the 2024 US election. Yet while Democrats across the country try to forget Biden’s chaotic showdown, the first lady seems determined to remind them of it. Addressing her husband’s humiliating performance, an editor’s note in the magazine states:

The debate on June 27 spurred a discussion about whether President Joe Biden should remain the Democratic nominee. Dr. Jill Biden, the first lady and Vogue’s August cover subject, has fiercely defended her husband and stood by him. Reached by phone on June 30 at Camp David, where the Biden family had gathered for the weekend, she told Vogue that they ‘will not let those ninety minutes define the four years he’s been president. We will continue to fight.’

Strong stuff. Joe Biden’s supporters have since blamed his conduct on poor preparation and exhaustion but Cockburn isn’t quite sure this will quell mounting concerns about the ability of the president to take on Trump.

It’s Dr. Jill’s third Vogue cover after being featured twice in print and once online — as many in her four years of being first lady that Michelle Obama had in eight. Perhaps reflective of an editorial awareness that when it comes to popularity ratings, the Obamas needed a little less help…

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.