President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden's First White House Interview (Exclusive) | People

I love gardenias and so Joe would buy me a wrist corsage of gardenias. I think it was for Valentine's Day and it's just a tradition and he surprised me with it and I was surprised that people actually saw it on my wrist but I guess with the zoom lens you see everything. I think it's important to and Jill does the same thing let each other know no matter how much time has gone by how I got criticized for saying this a while ago but they were asking me a couple years ago she comes down a step it still goes a little boom boom boom boom for real. I Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. do solemnly swear. On January 20th Joseph R Biden was sworn in as the 46th president in our nation's history. While nearly 40 million Americans watched on television only 1,000 attended in person. Due to the pandemic the normally packed crowd of supporters was replaced with a sea of American flags making the event almost as surreal as it was historic. This was a one of the most consequential inaugurations in a long long time. The state of the nation is between everything from COVID to unemployment to dealing with racial inequality and we wanted to make sure that as many Americans could participate as possible and turns out millions of people watched it millions of people watched it. I thought it was really uplifting and just from the musical talent to the poet to Joe's speech and you know what he had to say to offer hope to all Americans and people so many my one of my colleagues said to me Jill she said we felt a part we felt like we did this like everybody came together and you know whether they went whether they contributed five dollars or whether they wrote notes or whatever they did people felt a part of it and I think that's what made it unique and um and made it really very special for us so even though we were in a pandemic I thought it just the whole it just felt so positive and uplifting to me. Ladies and gentlemen the president-elect of the United States Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Dr. Jill Biden. It seems so surreal the whole day but when we walked down that hallway and then uh where they were going to open the doors that Joe would walk out to be sworn in it's that moment it hit me at that moment when they opened those doors and I could you know I could just feel this lump in my throat and uh two of my grandkids said to me Nana we saw that you know that it hit you and I thought that was so funny because I thought I was hiding it so well and uh but that was the moment it became real for me. The moment for me was being sworn in looking at the chief and seeing out and Jill holding the bible and our son and daughter standing and I could see behind them my grandchildren and it just made me feel um so proud that we were all part of history here and uh and our together all of us we uh all the kids uh the five grandkids six grandkids and our son and daughter and son-in-law and daughter-in-law they all quarantined uh for the seven days ahead and we all spent time together so it was it was an enormous uh it was it was just for us like most people families the beginning the middle and then and it meant so much to me that uh they were there and it also meant so much to me and Jill's gonna warn me not to say this because I sometimes get emotional but I won't is that uh Bo was there uh and uh our son Bo who uh was uh an incredible man and he was there in his namesake his his his nephew Bowie was there and it just I don't know it just seemed like it it seemed complete complete the pandemic also prohibited the traditional slate of inaugural balls so instead the biden celebrated as a family in the blue room of the white house residence it was great there's no place I would have rather been than me with the kids it was still magical I mean it really the whole night was magical and and they I mean you know the thing that I guess may be hard for people to understand which I would have trouble understanding if we're not in the situation from the time each of these children were born their grandfather had been either a United States senator or a vice president and they have had to learn to be happy and grieve in public there's there was no private time for them and it just seemed like when we got in the house I mean I remember opening the door and walking through and it was like okay it's us yeah it's us you know the excitement was palpable no it was and it's just uh but we're so so fortunate to have the son and daughter we have and the grandkids we have just I don't know it it was just uh and they work like the devil together too I mean they work like the devil and they're uh they they really uh they felt good about it with six grandchildren enjoying front row seats to their pop's long life in politics one wonders if they might want to seek office themselves someday well the the truth is I don't know if they want to ever run for office but I'm going to say something I can say this as a grandpa they are so damn informed I was trying to explain to somebody this it's kind of like if you were raised in a family where your mom was the president of a bank you'd know about mortgages and you know about all you just be with them it's hard to believe but we've never separated them from what we've done so they've met everybody that comes in our orbit and they have a sense of obligation and all the kids are involved I mean um the girls marched in the women's march I mean they just show up I said what'd you do well we went to the women's march pop you sit down around the kitchen table we all eat together and and the conversation will be about well pop what do you think is going to happen will will Putin sign will you know re-up on the arms control treaty I mean you know they're you know 15 years old you know we've included them in everything we've done in terms of uh from the time they've been kids and one of the favorite pictures I have is uh I have it on the desk upstairs is Ashley our daughter who was then three years old and I'm we're at a parade and the flag is going by and she's standing there like this without anybody telling her to stand there like that no they've never known anything but public office public service but they but they care a lot that's the thing that that really makes me feel good everybody knows I I like kids better than people um I just you know we used to they used to joke I remember a couple of my colleagues were talking about why didn't we friends so why didn't we go off a bunch of guys go off on a skiing trip or and and my whole life not a joke I'd always rather be with my boys and my job with my children and I like being with everybody else but I got to go away skiing I went with the boys and my daughter I went with my grandkids I mean so I to me it's the uh it's it's the thing I care about the most. Congratulations Mr. President. The Bidens were married back in 1977 when he was still a first-term senator from Delaware and a single father after tragically losing his first wife and their baby daughter to a car crash five years earlier. It's a testament to the Bidens' unique bond that their relationship has not only survived but thrived after nearly 44 years of marriage. You know everybody says marriage is a 50-50 well that's not true sometimes you have to be 70-30 sometimes when somebody's down the other one steps in and the good news for us has been uh thank God that when I'm really down she steps in and when she's down I'm able to step in and we've been really supportive of one another um and it's just I know I and you know I've read all that data as well you know about families under pressure how it but it's been uh that's why it's so important that I'm glad she kept her profession you know I really mean it I think it's really important that she you know she's a she's an educator and I've supported it all the way through from the time where although she took off two years when we first got married because the boys were little but uh you know just I think it's important she have her the things that she cares a great deal about her independence and her and yet we share each other's uh yeah and I think um you know with all that we've been through together as a couple um you know the highs the lows you know certainly tragedy and loss you know there's that quote that says sometimes you become stronger in the fractured places and um and I think over time you know that's that's what we hope for that's what we try to achieve I think we each could have done our jobs out there but not as well as we do them and not with this kind of I'm not sure but for Jill I don't think I would have stayed involved in public life um you know Jill came along at a really important point and put the family back together I mean she's the glue that held it together and I knew um that I wanted to marry her shortly after I met her and that's not a joke everybody one of your former colleagues uh was doing an event on uh we were I was doing an interview in the executive office building uh when I first became vice president it was valentine's day and the night before she Jill got the maintenance people to bring a 16-foot ladder in and she took that stuff with that kind of paint the kids use in their school poster poster paint and she put in every pane there's like 20 panes in each of these big four windows that are 15 feet high and she drew hearts and says Joe loves Jill not Joe loves Joe and so we're coming down those steps the press was coming down and I got a phone call my press person got a phone call saying would I go on I think with CBS the next morning on valentine's day I said and they said do it so I went on I was uh a reporter we're sitting there getting ready for the interview you know it was it was dark in the room uh on the in the second floor of the of the executive office building and we're kind of knee-to-knee back we didn't have to wear a mask and and uh the reporter looked at me and she said uh everybody says you and your wife have a great love affair and I said I think so but I said everyone knows I love her more than she loves me and she looked at me said that's what so but it really you know it's it's not that we don't fight and argue sometimes but uh I don't know I just think I'm just lucky well after 43 years of marriage there's really not that much more to fight about Dr. Jill Biden has been an educator since the 70s and as first lady she will continue her role as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College I teach writing and I've been I taught all eight years that I was second lady and so it was I mean as Joe knows that's that's my passion that's my life and it meant so much to me that educators across this country supported my husband and so I knew that as soon as we moved in here one of the first things I would do would be to connect with educators and say you know this is our moment and try to lift up teachers and and celebrate who they are because especially in this pandemic you know we've seen the strength and the resilience of our teachers and so that meant a lot to me and then of course I've been doing a lot with military families and I went to visit a cancer clinic and um and it was important to me that uh governor's spouses got to know I want them to get to know me I mean the whole theme I think this week and Joe's administration has been unity and I think it was really important that day one we were showing that kind of unity and so I asked governor's spouses to meet with me over zoom of course but and tell me what they were doing what was on their minds share our stories and that's what we hope to do going forward the thing that surprises me is how much energy Jill gets from her students I really mean it because the students she teaches what's the average age now probably 28 28 years old these are people who are struggling many of them that come back to school or weren't the people who graduated from high school and loving school and but they're remaking their lives and it's inspiration Jill will come home without I don't know their names will never read the names and say listen to this and this you know this young woman with three children who was abused and she made it out or this I mean a lot of foreign students coming from from other countries who and it's just and what I am what I'm amazed by is the response of the students how they it's Dr. B Dr. B you know it used to be my first take on this when she was teaching high school we're first got married we've been walking through a mall at Christmas time and people would yell hey hi and I'd wave back no no no not you no I really mean it not a joke and so I think it's a it's energy for you as well well it's been busy but it's been so many different things you know so many different areas and Joe's been working hard on foreign policy and of course his new rescue plan and so we have a lot to do but we have a lot ahead of us and we feel good about it we feel like people have hope that we're moving the country forward Also helping to move the country forward of course will be Vice President Kamala Harris. I made the same deal with her that Barack and I made I wanted her available participate in everything that I did I wanted her to as I told her I wanted her to be the last person in the room when Barack and I were working out our relationship early on he said do you have any requests and I said well just one I get to be the last person in the room on every important decision not because you have to listen you have to do what I want you make the decision but there's no reason to come into administration where you don't get to and leave a job that I had where I was fairly influential and he honored that so we do the same thing Barack and I we have lunch alone once a week that's the deal when we're both in the country which will be for a while because of COVID and I see her you know all the time. And I think that's one of the best things of our administration you know I was so proud when Joe chose a woman to be his vice president and then I mean I think it meant so much to all women across this country and then to see her there to see her get sworn in on inauguration day was really part of the excitement and it just showed you know Joe's beliefs and how much he respects women. The Bidens have only had two weeks to get used to their new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue but so far so good. Well it's surreal but it's it's comfortable we are in a you know we were here for eight years as vice president not in this part of the residence we've a lot spent a lot of time here in the cabinet room and in the oval with the president but upstairs is new and we found it kind of surreal when we it didn't seem like that much was changing including the inauguration until we walked through the door with our grandkids it was like oh I guess things have changed. But the staff has been so great you know trying to make it feel like home for us and so they we have family pictures all around and our books and you know things that we brought from home some furniture so a lot of it feels like home. And in case you're wondering Champ and Major are also adjusting just fine to life at the White House. They really don't have any rules they're really good dogs. Well you know we trained them from the beginning. Champ is old he's 14 years old and he was extremely well trained by the K-9 Corps and he's a real he thinks he's Secret Service but Major who is a big little dog is about a year and a half old and the only rule Jill has and he follows it cannot get up in the furniture yeah the beds furniture except when our granddaughters stay overnight he sneaks in and jumps up in the bed with them yeah. With a deadly pandemic an economic crisis and a divided nation desperate to heal President Biden has a full plate for his first hundred days and while this isn't the ideal time for Congress to be impeaching our former president Biden nevertheless told a CNN reporter that he does believe the trial should go forward. What I was referring to they asked me whether or not they thought the trial should go forward. They didn't ask me whether or not he should have been impeached he was impeached by the House and it has to move forward otherwise it would come off as farcical what this was all about. I'm not making I'm no longer in the Senate obviously and I don't know what is likely to to happen it's probably not likely that to get 17 Republicans to change their view and and and convict on impeachment but I think it's important that there be certain basic standards that people at least are able to see what happened and make their own judgments. I'm not looking for any retribution I'm not looking it's just my job is to try to heal the country and move us forward because I think we have so many opportunities as a country I really do. I've never been more optimistic in my life about the prospects of the country for the country and so but I was responding to the question should in a sense the trial go forward to say now no after I don't think that's makes a mockery of the system. No doubt President Biden will be a busy man in 2021 but he has high hopes for where we'll all be by the start of 2022. I hope that this time next year we have moved to the point where we have fundamentally returned to normal as it relates to COVID where you know people will have it's going to be hard because you know they're predicting another 100-150,000 dead unless we take precautions even with the with the vaccine. I also hope that we have found our way that we have really begun to make inroads into equity for all people and I think we have a chance to do that in terms of the jobs we create because I think it's a it's a great old saying that is someone's used facetiously it's great when conscience and convenience cross paths. Our conscience dictates that we deal with the problems we face but it's also an incredibly convenient opportunity to fundamentally put people in positions where they can have decent jobs and decent opportunities and real change and so I hope we're in a position where the economy is growing people are back to a degree of optimism about their self and their families and our health is in position that is fundamentally different than today. That's my hope. That's our prayer.