Vogue did right by Dr. Jill Biden. Better than they did with Kamala Harris, frankly. It probably helped the magazine that Annie Leibovitz could take beautiful, scenic photos inside the White House. The cover is especially good, and Leibovitz also did some portraits of Jill and Joe Biden together, and some photos of the Bidens in the gardens of the White House – you can see Vogue’s full editorial here, along with the fantastic profile of Dr. Biden. Both President Biden and Dr. Biden come across like normal people here, “just folks” who happen to be good, decent, hardworking people. Joe even made me tear up a little bit when he joined Jill for part of the interview and he talked about how much he misses her because she’s always working and traveling around to help him out. Some highlights from the piece:

No one thought she could keep teaching as FLOTUS. “I heard that all the time during the campaign. Like, ‘No. You’re not going to be able to teach as first lady.’ And I said, ‘Why not? You make things happen, right?’”

Things feel more relaxed now that the Bidens are in office: “During the campaign, I felt so much anxiety from people; they were scared. When I travel around the country now, I feel as though people can breathe again. I think that’s part of the reason Joe was elected. People wanted someone to come in and heal this nation, not just from the pandemic, which I feel Joe did by, you know, getting shots in everybody’s arms. But also…he’s just a calmer president. He lowers the temperature.”

She taught a creative writing class for mostly men last semester: “Maybe two months ago they said, ‘Hey, Dr. B…. Can we ask you a question?’  ” I said yeah. They said, ‘When we write in our journals, can we curse?’ I don’t know what they thought! We never said the words first lady ever. So I said, ‘Yes, you can curse.’ Because I tell them they can write anything. And here they are, these young men, like, ‘Yes! We can curse!’ I loved that. After that class, I felt…good. I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve: They see me as their English teacher.”

There is so much to do: “When I became second lady—and there was so much I wanted to do—I always said, ‘I will never waste this platform.’  And now I have a bigger platform and I feel every day, like….What could I give up? That I would want to give up? Nothing. If anything, I feel like adding more things, but I know it’s not possible, because you want to stay centered, because you want to do things well. And there’s so much to do. There is…so. Much. To. Do.”

Joe Biden on how the presidency has affected their marriage: “I miss her. I’m really proud of her. But it’s not like we can just go off like we used to. When we were living in Delaware and married, once a month we’d just go up to a local bed-and-breakfast by ourselves, to make sure we had a romantic time to just get away and hang out with each other.”

She’s wearing a lot of young, emerging, and diverse designers. “I think that’s important: You try to lift up other people. I like to choose from a diverse group of designers. When I was planning my Inauguration outfits, that’s one of the things I considered.”

[From Vogue]

She references the dogs too, because Champ was still alive when they did this interview, and she explained that Major just gets overexcited with all of the new people coming in and out. Both the president and first lady speak at length about how neither of them were really interested in the trappings of the presidency, the White House or the security or all the fuss. They reminisce about their old lives in Wilmington, going to the beach on the weekends or throwing parties and cookouts and such. They basically gave all that up to serve the nation and heal America after Trump. Anyway, she’s amazing and I love her.

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Cover & IG courtesy of Vogue.