A photograph of first lady Jill Biden seated next to Vice President Kamala Harris with just days to go before President Joe Biden’s term ends has gone viral online amid reports of increasing tension in the White House.
The photo also features second husband Doug Emhoff and first son Hunter Biden, and while it appears a bit out of focus, some online users believe that there is a great deal of unease in the room.
“Kamala and Jill sitting next to each other during Biden’s Farewell Address. You can feel the tension,” the Johnny Maga X account posted along with the photo.
Reports have surfaced throughout Joe Biden’s presidency that the first lady and the vice president did not get along. In 2022, for instance, a newly released book claimed that Jill Biden did not want Harris on the ticket after what she said about her husband during the 2020 Democratic debates.
The book, titled “This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future,” authored by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, also said that Joe himself had reservations about adding Harris to his ticket.
“There are millions of people in the United States. Why do we have to choose the one who attacked Joe,” Jill Biden said in a conversation after she discovered that Harris was in the lead for the job, Fox News reported.
But there was support for her among some on Biden’s staff, including Ron Klain who is now the White House chief of staff, was in charge of the vetting for vice president and had Harris pegged for the job.
“Yes, Harris had attacked Biden more harshly than any other major candidate in the Democratic primaries. Yes, the Biden family had seen it as a smear and a betrayal. In Klain’s assessment, that would work to Biden’s advantage,” the book said. “Choosing Harris will show people that you are magnanimous and forgiving, Klain told Biden. It will show the country just what a unifying leader you can be.”
More recently, CNN’s Jake Tapper noted the tense greeting between Joe Biden, Harris, and their spouses at former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral, saying it was not “particularly warm.”
Cameras inside the National Cathedral captured the moment. There did not appear to be much eye contact or handshakes among the four of them.
“There’s President Joe Biden and first Lady Joe Biden. And I think he has 11 days left as president of the United States. Obviously an eventful year, one that he did not plan for,” Tapper noted, as he narrated the unfolding scene.
”Started the year as a would-be Democratic presidential nominee, and we all know what happened after that. Again, you didn’t see a particularly warm greeting between the first couple and the second couple. But again, we are at a funeral, so one has to take that into account when trying to read the body language of the individuals there,” he added.
