01of 22Celeste SlomanPresident Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden pose for a photo in their first interview post-inauguration with PEOPLE on Jan. 28, touching on everything from policy and prayer to their dogs and, of course, their love story.“She has a backbone like a ramrod,” Biden says of his wife. “Everybody says marriage is 50/50. Well, some- times you have to be 70/30. Thank God that when I’m really down, she steps in, and when she’s really down, I’m able to step in. We’ve been really supportive of one another.”
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Celeste Sloman
President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden pose for a photo in their first interview post-inauguration with PEOPLE on Jan. 28, touching on everything from policy and prayer to their dogs and, of course, their love story.
“She has a backbone like a ramrod,” Biden says of his wife. “Everybody says marriage is 50/50. Well, some- times you have to be 70/30. Thank God that when I’m really down, she steps in, and when she’s really down, I’m able to step in. We’ve been really supportive of one another.”
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03of 22Biden walks to the West Wing on Jan. 21, his first full day as President.
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Biden walks to the West Wing on Jan. 21, his first full day as President.
04of 22Official White House Photo By Adam Schultz"The whole day seemed so surreal, but it hit me at that moment when they opened those doors that Joe walked out to go and be sworn in," Jill says of inauguration day, Jan. 20. “I could feel this lump in my throat, and two of my grandkids said, ‘Nana, we saw that it hit you.’ That was so funny because I thought I was hiding it so well, but that was the moment it became real for me.”
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Official White House Photo By Adam Schultz
“The whole day seemed so surreal, but it hit me at that moment when they opened those doors that Joe walked out to go and be sworn in,” Jill says of inauguration day, Jan. 20. “I could feel this lump in my throat, and two of my grandkids said, ‘Nana, we saw that it hit you.’ That was so funny because I thought I was hiding it so well, but that was the moment it became real for me.”
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Biden family members from left: Son-in-law Dr. Howard Krein; granddaughters Natalie, 16, and Maisy, 20; daughter Ashley, 39; Joe; Jill; and grandchildren Finnegan, 21, Naomi, 27, and Robert “Hunter,” 14.
“All the kids are involved” in social justice, says their “Nana.” Their “Pop” adds, “They all care a lot. That really makes me feel good.”
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Biden throws on a log in the Oval Office. “If there’s a fireplace,” says an aide, “he always wants a fire.”
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Vice President Kamala Harris has drop-in privileges at the White House, Biden says.
“I made the same deal with her that [former PresidentBarack Obama] and I made: I wanted her available to participate in everything that I did; I wanted her to be the last person in the room on every important decision,” says Biden. “We have lunch alone once a week — that’s the deal — when we’re both in-country, which we’ll be for a while because of COVID. I see her all the time.”
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09of 22Major and Champ BIden.Adam Schultz/Official White House PhotoThe Bidens' German shepherds — 1-year-old rescue Major (rear) and Champ, 14 — moved in to the White House on Jan. 24. The next day, reporters could hear them barking in the background of a press conference.
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Major and Champ BIden.Adam Schultz/Official White House Photo
The Bidens' German shepherds — 1-year-old rescue Major (rear) and Champ, 14 — moved in to the White House on Jan. 24. The next day, reporters could hear them barking in the background of a press conference.
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Former PresidentBarack Obamapenned a moving messageto his friend and former VP as inauguration day wound down.
11of 22Official White House Photo By Adam Schultz"My religion, for me, is a safe place," says Biden. “I never miss mass, because I can be alone. I mean, I’m with my family but just kind of absorbing the fundamental principle that you’ve got to treat everyone with dignity.”
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“My religion, for me, is a safe place,” says Biden. “I never miss mass, because I can be alone. I mean, I’m with my family but just kind of absorbing the fundamental principle that you’ve got to treat everyone with dignity.”
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“Jill came along at a really important point and put my family back together,” says Biden. “She’s the glue that held it together, and I knew that I wanted to marry her shortly after I met her.”
13of 22Adam Schultz/Official White House PhotoThe Bidens got Champ around Christmas 2008 and brought the beloved pet with them to the vice presidential residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory during former Vice President Joe Biden’s two terms with former PresidentBarack Obama. Champ got his name from the nickname Biden’s father gave him when he was a boy.
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Adam Schultz/Official White House Photo
The Bidens got Champ around Christmas 2008 and brought the beloved pet with them to the vice presidential residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory during former Vice President Joe Biden’s two terms with former PresidentBarack Obama. Champ got his name from the nickname Biden’s father gave him when he was a boy.
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From left: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and President Joe Biden photographed for PEOPLE on Jan. 27 in the White House Blue Room.Celeste Sloman
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The First Lady tours Whitman-Walker Health in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 22. Despite her official duties, she’s keeping her daytime teaching job. “That’s my passion, that’s my life,” she says.
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17of 22Official White House Photo By Lawrence JacksonWith her doctorate in education, Jill Biden is the first First Lady in modern memory to juggle a separate career — teaching community college — with her unpaid work from the East Wing to promote education; cancer care and research; and, with a relaunch of Joining Forces (her 2011-2017 initiative with then First LadyMichelle Obama), the needs of military families.
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Official White House Photo By Lawrence Jackson
With her doctorate in education, Jill Biden is the first First Lady in modern memory to juggle a separate career — teaching community college — with her unpaid work from the East Wing to promote education; cancer care and research; and, with a relaunch of Joining Forces (her 2011-2017 initiative with then First LadyMichelle Obama), the needs of military families.
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“I thought [inauguration day] was really uplifting — from the musical talent to the poet to Joe’s speech offering hope to all Americans,” says Jill. “So even though we were in a pandemic, it just felt so positive to me.”
19of 22Adam Schultz/Official White House Photo"The only rule Jill has [for the dogs] — and they follow it — is do not get up on the furniture or beds," says Biden.
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“The only rule Jill has [for the dogs] — and they follow it — is do not get up on the furniture or beds,” says Biden.
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Though inauguration day was without the traditional fanfare and nighttime parties, the Bidens were fine with the intimacy of the day.
“From the time each of [our grandchildren] were born, their grandfather had been either a United States senator or a Vice President, their dad [Beau] had been the [Delaware] attorney general or abroad as a major in the United States military. And they had to learn to be happy and grieve in public,” Biden shares. “There is no private time for them. So when we got in the White House [on inauguration night], I remember opening the door and walking through, and it was like, ‘Okay, it’s us. It’s us.’ "
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Of their rock-solid marriage, says Jill, “All that we’ve been through together — the highs, the lows and certainly tragedy and loss — there’s that quote that says sometimes you become stronger in the fractured places. That’s what we try to achieve.”
22of 22Celeste SlomanRead more from the president and first lady’s first sit-down interview of their term in the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.
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Read more from the president and first lady’s first sit-down interview of their term in the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.
source: people.com
