Dr. Jill Biden, Ed.D., has been commuting on military planes between D.C., France and Delaware this week, fulfilling her obligations as First Lady for a White House picnic, the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion and her stepson Hunter’s federal trial in Wilmington, Delaware on gun related charges.
Jill’s travel miles started racking up earlier this week when she flew with husband Joe Biden from their Rehoboth Beach, Delaware vacation home Sunday night to their home in Wilmington where Jill attended the first day of the trial on Monday (her 73rd birthday) while Joe stayed home before he took a solo trip for a Monday night Greenwich, Connecticut fundraiser. Joe flew back to the White House afterward.
On Tuesday, Jill attended the second day of the trial before jetting off to D.C. to join Joe in hosting the Congressional picnic at the White House Tuesday evening.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive during the White House Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/OcN3M3voJQ
— Al Drago (@Al_Drago) June 5, 2024
Jill then flew back to Wilmington Tuesday night to attend the third day of Hunter’s trial on Wednesday while Joe flew to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day and a state visit with President Emmanuel Macron.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre stiff-armed a reporter who asked about Jill Biden’s travel plans during a Tuesday night press gaggle on Air Force One while Joe was headed to France:
Q Do you know what — the President dropped the First Lady off at her own plane on the way to Air Force One. Is she — she going back to Wilmington to attend the trial for day three?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I would have to refer to the First Lady’s Office on her — on her travel. I just don’t — or — or her — yeah, her travel. I just don’t have anything for you at this time. So —
After attending Hunter’s trial on Wednesday, Jill jetted off to France to join Joe for Thursday’s D-Day observance in Normandy where she valiantly guided Joe and did what she could to protect the nation from total embarrassment and humiliation by her 81-year-old decompensating husband.
Awkward pic.twitter.com/3KNLco85hj
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
Bizarre moment Jill covers her mouth as Joe suddenly bends down during the 80th anniversary D-Day speech https://t.co/5CKkoPOxSq pic.twitter.com/NHpIha6y3R
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 6, 2024
Jill, Ed.D., escorts Joe Biden out as French President Macron stays behind to greet veterans pic.twitter.com/n4rpRgdbv5
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 6, 2024
Then it was back on a USAF C-32 so Jill could attend Hunter’s trial on Friday. Afterward, Jill was scheduled to take a military jet right back to France to attend a state dinner with Joe in Paris on Saturday. Late on Sunday, Jill and Joe are scheduled to fly back to Wilmington, where Hunter’s trial resumes on Monday.
Reuters White House reporter Jeff Mason posted to X: “.@POTUS and @FLOTUS parted at the airport in Paris after spending the day together in Normandy for the D-Day anniversary. Dr. Biden boarded her plane and appears to be heading back to Wilmington, where Hunter Biden is on trial this week. She has been attending the trial. She is due back in Paris for the state visit on Saturday.
.@POTUS and @FLOTUS parted at the airport in Paris after spending the day together in Normandy for the D-Day anniversary. Dr. Biden boarded her plane and appears to be heading back to Wilmington, where Hunter Biden is on trial this week. She has been attending the trial. She is…
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) June 6, 2024
A New York Times report on Jill’s jet setting did not mention who is paying for her trial related travel (excerpt):
Jill Biden, the first lady, left President Biden’s side in France on Thursday to make the trans-Atlantic trip back to Delaware, where Hunter Biden is standing trial on gun charges.
The first lady is then scheduled to return to France for a state visit on Saturday, according to her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander.
The departure of the first lady from a high-profile foreign trip was perhaps the most dramatic illustration yet of the Biden family’s personal priorities, which lie some 3,600 miles away from France, in Courtroom 4A of the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Del.
Hunter Biden is on trial on charges of lying about his drug use on a form to buy a gun in October 2018, and of illegally possessing the weapon.
The boomerang trip also says something about the resolve of the first lady, who is not a blood relative of Hunter Biden but who is the woman who raised him since he was a small child. Over time, she has become her family’s protective backbone.
“I’m his mom,” she said in an interview in 2022, when Hunter Biden was the subject of a federal investigation. “I mean, I have to support him and love him, and, you know, I’m constantly talking to him, sending him texts; ‘How you doing?’ Because it’s tough.”
A plane ride across the Atlantic Ocean shows just how tough.
On Friday, Fox News raised the question of who will be paying for Jill’s frequent flights for the trial:
WATCH: Fox News reports that First Lady Jill Biden is commuting back and forth to Hunter Biden’s trial from France “presumably at government expense. … Not sure if the Biden family will be reimbursing the U.S. Air Force.” pic.twitter.com/ngfCdTGBWK
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) June 7, 2024
Spectrum News reporter Taylor Popielarz succinctly summarized Jill’s travel week:
“Quite a week for First Lady Jill Biden: • Monday (her birthday): In Delaware for Hunter’s trial • Tuesday: In Delaware for trial, then flew to DC for congressional picnic • Wednesday: Back in Delaware for trial, then flew to France overnight • Thursday: In France for D-Day events, then flew back to Delaware • Friday: In Delaware for trial, then heading back to France • Saturday: Will be in France for state dinner • Sunday: Will complete events in France and fly back to Delaware”
Quite a week for First Lady Jill Biden:
• Monday (her birthday): In Delaware for Hunter’s trial
• Tuesday: In Delaware for trial, then flew to DC for congressional picnic
• Wednesday: Back in Delaware for trial, then flew to France overnight
• Thursday: In France for… https://t.co/4JVNLGUSOI
— Taylor Popielarz (@TaylorPopielarz) June 7, 2024
The carbon footprint for Jill’s travels between Rehoboth Beach, Wilmington, D.C., Wilmington, Normandy, Wilmington, Paris and Wilmington must be enormous, but she is one of our betters and as such she is entitled.