Key Words: First lady Jill Biden graces Vogue cover: ‘I will never waste this platform’

The first lady is back in Vogue. 

Dr. Jill Biden graces the magazine’s August cover — the first FLOTUS to be featured on the front of the fashion bible since former first lady Michelle Obama’s December 2016 cover, which was her third. 

The Condé Nast glossy revealed the cover photo on Tuesday morning, which became a trending topic on Twitter and soon spurred more than 120,000 tweets. Photographer Annie Leibovitz posted Biden on the White House balcony that overlooks the South Lawn, and the first lady was styled in a navy floral Oscar de la Renta dress. 

The glowing cover story describes Biden as “A First Lady for All of Us,” and details how the FLOTUS has continued teaching while also traveling across the country to help promote the president’s policies, such as getting more Americans vaccinated, or pushing the parts of the American Families Plan that aim to cut child poverty in half. Writer Jonathan Van Meter describes a time when the media and Secret Service waited in an Albuquerque hotel for “Dr. B” to finish teaching her classes over Zoom, for example, before the motorcade could roll out to a number of events. 

“I heard that all the time during the campaign … Like, ‘No. You’re not going to be able to teach as first lady,’” said Biden. “And I said, ‘Why not? You make things happen, right?’” 

The profile also attempts to differentiate the Bidens from the Trumps — noting that President Biden is “boring” in comparison to President Trump’s headline-making news conferences and tweets. The current first lady uses the world “calmer,” instead.

“ “People can breathe again.” ”

— First Lady Jill Biden

“People can breathe again” since her husband was elected president, Jill Biden said. “People wanted someone to come in and heal this nation, not just from the pandemic, which I feel Joe did by, you know, getting shots in everybody’s arms,” she continued. “But also … he’s just a calmer president. He lowers the temperature.”

And while she doesn’t mention her predecessor Melania Trump by name, the current first lady does talk about how she is working to embrace her platform, such as restarting the military family–support initiative Joining Forces that she had started with Michelle Obama a decade ago, or working with the new secretary of education in “reimagining our education system from preschool to college.”

“When I became second lady — and there was so much I wanted to do — I always said, ‘I will never waste this platform,’” said Biden.

“And now I have a bigger platform,” she added, “and I feel every day, like … What could I give up? That I would want to give up? Nothing. If anything, I feel like adding more things, but I know it’s not possible, because you want to stay centered, because you want to do things well. And there’s so much to do. There is…so. Much. To. Do.”

The cover photo sparked some criticism (and jokes) on Twitter about why former first lady Melania Trump never graced the cover while her husband was in office. (She did appear on the cover shortly before her wedding to Trump in 2005.) It should be noted that editor in chief Anna Wintour had been critical of President Trump and endorsed Biden for president in Vogue’s March 2020 issue, citing Trump’s “dishonesty with the American people” and “shocking lack of empathy and compassion for those who are suffering and fearful” during the pandemic. 

The Vogue issue featuring Jill Biden will hit stands on July 20.

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June 30, 2021 at 04:31AM
Nicole Lyn Pesce
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B20C05575-04D4-B545-74E5-2C02C6FB4993%7D&siteid=rss&rss=1