Dr. Jill Biden Will Continue to Teach When She Becomes First Lady: 'It's Important'
Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald/Getty Images Jill Biden
Editor's note: On Saturday, The Associated Press projected that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Biden's wife, former Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden, will succeed Melania Trump as first lady. The below article was originally published on Aug. 9.
Dr. Jill Biden plans to continue working as an educator if she becomes the first lady.
In a new profile for CBS Sunday Morning, the former second lady said that even if her husband, Joe Biden, wins the presidency in the upcoming election, she wants to continue teaching.
"I hope so. I would love to," the community college teacher said when asked if she would continue teaching as the first lady. "If we get to the White House, I’m going to continue to teach. It’s important, and I want people to value teachers and know their contributions and lift up their profession."
Dr. Biden, who has a doctorate in education, has been a teacher for decades and continued teaching while serving as the second lady during Barack Obama's presidency.
“I want to do what I love,” she told PEOPLE in 2009 after beginning her new job as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College shortly after moving to Washington D.C. for her husband's new role as Vice President.
“I knew if I let any time-lapse, I would be sucked into Joe’s life. I can have my own job, my own life, but also work on issues,” she said at the time. “I can have it all, really.”
Ece Ogulturk Dr. Jill Biden
Former Vice President Biden also appeared in the new CBS profile and raved about his wife of 43 years.
"I adore her. I’m gonna sound so stupid, I was saying the other day, when she comes down the steps and I look at her my heart still skips a beat," the presidential hopeful, 77, said.
As Biden gears up to announce his highly anticipated female running mate, he said there's no one he turns to advice more than his wife. "What Jill is best at helping me do is figure out who the people around me would be most compatible with me," he said. "She knows me better than I know me."
Justin Sullivan/Getty From left: Dr. Jill Biden and former Vice President Joe Biden
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"We’ve talked about the different women candidates but it’s gotta be Joe’s decision," Dr. Biden said in her CBS interview. "Who he feels most comfortable with, who shares his values. And that’s what he’s always said that’s what he and Barack had."
Dr. Biden also recently wrote a children’s book about her husband, Joey: The Story of Joe Biden, which documents the former vice president’s childhood.
“He had to overcome a lot of hardship, he was bullied as a child, and so he knows what it feels for other kids to be bullied,” she said of her husband. “He stood up to the bullies and he stood up to the bullies who bullied other kids, so I think that he's resilient. I want people to know that he's empathetic because of what he's been through in life, and that he's a leader, of course.”
