Ex-Biden aides give Jill's new book a frosty review

Many former Biden aides think Jill Biden's new book is rewriting history, unhelpful to the Democratic Party and tone-deaf, they told Axios in interviews this week.

• The backlash comes as excerpts from the book — "View from the West Wing: A Memoir" — appeared online and the former first lady sat for her first interview since her husband left office in January 2025.

Why it matters: Most Democratic Party leaders don't want to talk about Joe Biden's presidency, but the Bidens are making that difficult. Both are writing books and the former president plans to make campaign stops ahead of the November midterms.

State of play: Jill Biden's book opens up a wound for many Democrats who believe the Bidens damaged their credibility with voters by insisting Joe Biden was fit enough to run for reelection in 2024 when he wasn't, and by pushing the party to publicly defend his fitness.

• Many Democrats feel the Bidens have yet to explain themselves, and that Jill Biden's new book is part of a larger pattern of looking for excuses and other people to blame.

What they're saying: Several Biden aides — including some of the most loyal ones — are fuming about the former first lady's reemergence.

• One former Biden official said: "I just wish they would give some more time and space and let people move on. It all feels so disingenuous."
• Another said: "The throughline between her book and [Kamala] Harris' is that they blame everyone but themselves for the loss."
• A former senior Biden official added: "President Biden actually has a legacy that is impactful and should be celebrated at some point — getting us through the pandemic and passing life-changing bills. Why does he keep stepping on it himself?"

A former Biden campaign aide said: "It's just so selfish. The Bidens preached selflessness and service above all — and every decision they've made since he decided to run for reelection has been about themselves. It's also ironic — the only people undermining President Biden's legacy are the people closest to him."

• Even former spokesperson Andrew Bates — one of Biden's most aggressive defenders — told the New York Post he doesn't think the book will affect the upcoming midterms, but that he's still angry they lost the 2024 election and he doesn't see "why that painful conversation for the party needed to be publicly reopened right now."

Driving the news: Former Biden aides are particularly incensed and dubious of the former first lady's version of events when it came to Joe Biden's aging and the debate that led him to exit the campaign.

• Jill Biden says now that she was "frightened" watching her husband's disastrous debate against Donald Trump, and writes in the book that she thought to herself: "Is this a stroke? I felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged?"
• After the debate, however, she didn't appear so worried and joined President Biden at a campaign rally, and a stop at a Waffle House, then introduced him at a rally the next day after an overnight flight.
• Her latest comments also are at odds with what Joe Biden's top aides said at the time and since: that the debate went badly, but the media and the Democratic Party overreacted.

Other former Biden aides fumed that she was simultaneously insisting her husband had not declined, while also suggesting she may have missed it.

• "Had he grown too old for the job and I hadn't noticed? I didn't think so, but could I be objective enough to be sure?" she writes in the new book.