Jill Biden Joins Cabinet Meeting to Deliver Women’s Health Update: She Doesn’t Rule the U.S.

As part of the narrative that President Joe Biden is failing to fulfill his duties as commander in chief, some conservative commentators and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have alleged that first lady Jill Biden stepped in to lead a Cabinet meeting for her husband, with some pointing to the president’s briefcase as further evidence of her takeover.

“LATEST: Jill takes over from Joe Biden in first White House Cabinet meeting in 11 months,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson wrote on X on Sept. 20. A screenshot from the MSNBC recording shows Jill Biden sitting at the end of a table with Cabinet members with the caption, “First Lady joins President Biden for Cabinet meeting.”

Six minutes later, Johnson shared a photo of what he called White House stationery with the presidential seal and both Bidens’ signatures. “The White House stationery now has the Presidential Seal surrounded by the signature of ‘President’ Jill Biden,” Johnson wrote.

At a September 21 rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump repeated the claim: “I don’t know if he’s still the president? Is he the president? Because yesterday his wife took over a Cabinet meeting, right? He hadn’t had a Cabinet meeting in two years, and yesterday they finally had one and he said, ‘I’ll let Jill handle this.'”

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, retweeted a tweet from The Blaze, a conservative media outlet, about the Cabinet meeting, writing: “Is this real? Is this who runs the country?”

Instagram users shared Johnson’s photo, and it was tagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat fake news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.)

Jill Biden did not chair the meeting or sit in the president’s usual seat; she was giving a scheduled update on her women’s health research initiative. The meeting was led by Joe Biden. The binder is ceremonial.

Some conservative media outlets criticized her attendance at the meeting, in part because it was the president’s first such meeting in 11 months and likely his last before the end of his presidency in January.

However, Jill Biden is not the first first lady to attend Cabinet meetings to talk about priorities; Pat Nixon, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton have also attended the meetings.

The White House told PolitiFact that Johnson’s photo shows a binder signed by Joe and Jill Biden, which is given as a keepsake to attendees at White House events. It is not used by staff for official purposes.

The White House announced that first lady Jill Biden and the White House Gender Policy Council will lead the Women’s Health Research Initiative in November 2023. Its goal is to discuss the United States’ approach to women’s health research and funding, which has historically been understudied.

On March 18, President Biden signed an executive order to prioritize investment in women’s health research and integrate it into U.S. federal research programs. He also called for new research on women’s health in midlife and an assessment of unmet needs to support women’s health research.

Jill Biden has been giving speeches and hosting events since the initiative launched.

In an email announcing her September 20 schedule, the White House said, “At 11:30 a.m., First Lady Jill Biden will join President Biden’s Cabinet Summit to provide an update on progress on the White House Women’s Health Research Initiative.”

It was Jill Biden’s first Cabinet appearance since Joe Biden took office. The Cabinet meeting was attended by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

President Biden began the meeting by saying Congress should pass a resolution extending government funding and avoid a government shutdown.

He then introduced his wife, who was seated at one end of an oval table. (Biden appears to be sitting in the president’s usual seat in the chamber, in the middle of the long side of the table, with his back to the windows.)

“We are grateful that Jill is here today,” Biden said. “And here, in previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings and so forth — for specific reasons. Jill has joined us for the first time. And that speaks to how important this issue that she is going to talk about is to both of us. Today, at the beginning of our meeting, Jill will provide an update on the White House initiative to fundamentally change the approach and funding, the way we approach and fund women’s health services.”

Jill then began her speech.

“In February, the (Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health), the agency that Joe created to do groundbreaking health research, launched its first Sprint for Women’s Health in a flash. A $100 million investment will fund innovations that will change women’s lives,” said Jill Biden. “Then, a month later, the NIH (National Institutes of Health) committed another $200 million to fund interdisciplinary research on women’s health, for example, studying how menopause affects heart health, brain health, bone health.”

She also spoke about a new joint effort between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve research for women in the military and women veterans, as well as new funding from the Department of Health and Human Services for women’s mental health and substance abuse treatment.

The First Lady spoke for approximately 4 and a half minutes.

After her speech, reporters asked President Biden whether a ceasefire deal with Israel was realistic. Aides then escorted the press out of the room.

Our ruling

There have been reports on social media that Jill Biden led a meeting of President Biden’s Cabinet and that her signature now appears on the president’s official correspondence.

Claims of its presence are exaggerated.

The first lady attended Biden’s Cabinet meeting on Sept. 20 to discuss updates on the Women’s Health Initiative, a White House initiative she has led since its inception in 2023. First ladies have attended Cabinet meetings in the past.

The White House told PolitiFact that the binder, which bears the signatures of the first lady and Biden, is a memento typically given to attendees at White House events and is not used by staff for official purposes.

We rate this claim as False.