First lady Jill Biden emphasized in an interview with NBC News that “we have to have a peaceful transfer of power,” urging Americans to “come together” amid deep political divisions.
“I think we have to come together. I think we have to vote,” she said. “As Americans, you know, that’s a right that we’ve been given, and I think we have to take advantage of that, and then we have to have a peaceful transfer of power.”
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly spread false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” and defended people who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has also waffled about whether he would accept the results of the election this November.
Biden was responding to a question about what she would say to Americans during a toxic campaign season.
Just on Sunday, Trump was the target of a second apparent assassination attempt. Politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed grave concerns over the rise in political violence.
Biden also said in the interview that both she and her husband are “totally at peace” with the president’s historic decision to bow out of the race in July.
“I’m totally at peace. And so is he,” she said in the interview.
Asked whether she was relieved for her husband that the weight was lifted off of his shoulders during the rest of the campaign season, she responded, “Yeah, I guess I am.”
“I’m just so used to seeing Joe work in government, and I think it’s always been a role that he’s had and played, and I think he’ll miss it, but I think he’s done a great job,” she said.
Even as she expressed concern about deep divisions within the country, she said her outlook is forward-looking.
“I think there’s so many things that are still going on in the world that are pretty heavy,” she said. “But hopefully as time goes on, that’ll ease back a bit and somebody else will take the reins.”
The interview came during a tour of “The People’s House,” a new White House interactive exhibit. Jill Biden helped spearhead the exhibit, along with the White House Historical Association. The broadcast of the tour will air on “Saturday TODAY.”
“It’s just what an educator wants,” said Biden, who is a college educator. “Because this is the way people learn: when they learn through the five senses and they’re not just sitting with someone just talking to them.”
The interactive exhibit opens to the public Monday.
