Its as if the world is holding its breath.
Tract housing, big box stores, churches, office parks, semi-industrial no-mans-land.
Finally, we arrive at our destination, Nine Mile Brewing, in Bloomington, Minnesota.
COVER LOOKFirst lady Dr. Jill Biden in a Ralph Lauren Collection dress. Irene Neuwirth earrings. Photographed by Norman Jean Roy, Vogue, August 2024.
Weve come to Minnesota this evening for two campaign eventsearly election season stuff to get the base excited.
By the end of the night, Id find it fitting.
Court decisions that strip away our most basic freedoms.
TOUCHDOWNDr. Biden lands in Minneapolis in April.Sittings Editor: Max Ortega.
But circumstance is not destiny.
The women here are fighting mad.
Thats what the Biden-Harris campaign is counting on: Wewill decide our future, the first lady tells them.
ON THE CLOCKWorking in a brewery manager’s office in Bloomington, Minnesota, minutes before a campaign appearance. Michael Kors Collection coat and dress.
Its time we show them, once again, just what we can do!
We exit amid cheers, hustled out again as she shakes hands along the rope line.
She looks like shes ready to party, and in a way, she isthese are her people.
MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEEDDr. Biden at her alma mater, Upper Moreland High School in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Coach trench coat.
Its hard to explain, but here goes.
To be honest, it didnt strike me as that big a dealmore like a natural evolution.
Women work; why not the first lady?
ON THE ROADAt a campaign stop in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Then I entered the White House bubble.
Right in the midst of this revelation, I realized that Dr. B had shifted back into FLOTUS mode.
Democracy is on the line, she said again.
PAYING RESPECTSAt the Columbine Memorial in Littleton, Colorado.
My mind returned to the brewery managers office.
Such an everyday place.
Full of the flotsam and jetsam of everyday affairs.
PAYING RESPECTSAt the Columbine Memorial in Littleton, Colorado.
Is that too much to ask?
And now they have to worry about democracy too?
Soaring FLOTUS rhetoric on the one hand; on the other, down-to-earth Dr. B. Im not sure how best to address her, so I stumble a bit over my words.
HELLO FROM DENVER“You have to remember, she’s really not a creature of Washington,” says Mary Doody, one of the first lady’s oldest and closest friends.
just, she says, brushing off my hesitation with a wave of a hand.
And I say, Sure.
He probably hasnt been able to get out of bed.
VIEW FROM THE GROUND“Look at where we are now," says Dr. Biden. “Things are better. They’re still getting better. It takes time to stand things up again.”
And I said, I wish you would have called me, because thereishelp.
And he said, Well, I need help.
So now Im scrambling to find help for him.
THE LISTENERMichael Kors Collection shirt. Irene Neuwirth earring.
Were drinking honey-ginger teadeliciousout of dainty china cups.
The atmosphere is genteel, redolent of bygone civilities.
Mass shootings, MAGA, the war in Gaza, it all feels so very far away.
I ask the first lady what books she assigns her students.
And whatever I give them, she adds, it has to be short.
Because they leave my class and go straight to work, many of them.
Some of the first ladys students are immigrants, still polishing their English skills.
Others are older women looking to reenter the workforce.
The job entails a certain attunement to the lives of others, and a sense of care.
She gets it, Pringle adds, simply.
The first lady is a longtime member of the NEA.
So thats just one example, where her stories connected with real solutions.
And that was a five-alarm crisis.
The stories-to-solutions pipeline isnt limited to the first ladys experience in the classroom.
I said to Joe, This is ridiculous, this is antiquatedwhat would I do if I couldnt work?
And he said, Okay, lets figure it out.
And this is where the magic happens.
Weve worked together on many issues over the years; shes very compassionate, but shes also practical.
Theres an eye toward: What exactly is the need here?
How can we help people?
Lately, many of the stories Jill Biden has been hearing are focused on womens health.
And, truly, thats thanks to the first lady.
Each campaign is unique.
But this one, the urgency is different.
We know whats at stake.
Jill Biden believes we can step back from this brink.
We dont need more chaos, she continues.
Thats a story of America she refuses to tell.
Fundamentally, Americans care about each other.
And this anger and animosity and divisiveness…its not who we are.
What do we want from a first lady?
The more time I spend around Jill Biden, the more the question bedevils me.
Theres no job description; first lady isnt, technically, a job.
Everyone who assumes the role makes up its contours for herself.
Then we decide whether shes met the moment.
Married at 18, blown sideways by divorce.
From then on, her life has been a series of such takings-on, navigating headlong through challenges.
Usually, in four-inch heels.
What I am trying to say is that Jill Biden is very good at meeting a moment.
We live in such loud times.
An endless reverberation chamber.
So much trauma, so much anger.
So many people jockeying to be heard.
And no one listening.
Except, it seems, Jill Biden.
Wherever we went, Id see people approach the first lady and open their hearts.
Theyd tell her about the children they worried about, the bills they struggled to pay.
One particular incident stands out to me.
She eyed us curiouslya large group, with Secret Service agents in towthen joined our procession.
As the first lady circled inside the ring, laying flowers, the woman in the beanie approached me.
The first lady, I tell her.
Can I talk to her?
I wasnt sure what to say.
I was the wrong person to ask.
And this womanher energy, well, it wasweird.A pair of Secret Service agents were ogling her warily.
Maybe you should ask them, I suggested; I dont know the protocol.
By this point, the first lady was heading in our direction.
What, shes like three feet away and I cant talk to her?!
She was getting aggressive.
Calm, gentle, the first lady walked up and introduced herself.
Shook the womans hand.
And Jill Biden listened, gaze steady, taking it in.
And then she replied, simply:Thank you.Because that was all that woman needed to hear.
Which brings me back to democracy.
And on the other side?
All they differ on is who occupies the magic circle.
Or, in TV terms, sits on the Iron Throne.
And perhaps others figure theyve got nothing to lose.
Its the first and only time I see her temper spark.
They dont know whos getting the lead out of their water.
They dont know whos stopping the pipeline going through the parklands.
She seems bewildered by this.
But then, where do people even get their news now?
Thats why Im trying to be out there, the first lady goes on.
Why were all trying.
To say, This is what weve achieved, and this is how it affects your life.
Each campaign is unique, says the first lady.
But this one, the urgency is different.
We know whats at stake.
We were so slammed, she says.
Wed never experienced anything like that.
Financially, emotionally, sociallyevery aspect of our lives was affected.
And Americans want things fixed fast.
Well, its happening.
Look at where we are now.
Theyre still getting better.
It takes time to stand things up again.”
If her frustration is palpable, so is her empathy for Americans who are frustrated, too.
Look, I know that food prices are up, she goes on.
I go to the grocery store when Im in Wilmington.
Its not like I dont know.
Joe Biden has been a very effective president for the working class, says Dr. OMeara Sanders.
Hes made a lot of great appointments.
I could go on.
Look, protest is essential in our democracy.
And thats what were fighting forto have a democracy that supports that.
Youve got to think ahead.
Everyone is entitled to vote their conscience, but if/when chips fall, can they live with the consequences?
We could have an authoritarian country, Dr. OMeara Sanders continues.
Thats whats up for a vote.
So I guess what Id say isout of the frying pan, into what?
Days ago, we were strangers.
Intimacy would be inauthentic.
Those are Beaus boots, she says.
Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015.
For a secondjust a secondits like shes back there, in that hospital room.
Jill Biden, I begin to suspect, doesnt want to talk about her feelings.
What mother wouldnt feel that?
Especially after everything theyve gone through, all that tragedy and loss.
Shes an early riser.
But she misses normal.
Having lunch, going to nurseries together and looking at plants.
Those kinds of things.
Theyll be home and happy to be home.
In the meantime, however, there is one last campaignand FLOTUS is on the march.
Launching a revolution in womens health research.
Listening to the people of Americaand asking, this once, that they listen back.
Because what shes saying is that the message has gotten through.
The change is happening.
This is power from the ground up, built on listening and coalition building.
They underestimate our power because they dont understand it, the first lady told the crowd.
They see our empathy and compassion as a vulnerability.
But we know theyre what give us the clarity to fight for whats right.
And in so doing, chip away at the hard problems.
Negotiate, reconsider your assumptions, and sometimes, agree to disagree, agree to lose.
Only a tyrant would say otherwise.
The August issue is here featuring Jill Biden.
In this story: hair, Sally Hershberger; makeup, Fulvia Farolfi; tailor, Carol Ai.
