Jill Biden’s ex reveals what he thinks about Joe staying within the race

Jill Biden‘s ex has criticized the First Lady for encouraging Joe to stay in the election following the incumbent’s disastrous debate performance on Thursday night.

Bill Stevenson, 75, told The New York Post on Saturday that he ‘just [doesn’t] understand why’ his ex-wife ‘is so adamant about defending him and keeping him in the race since it appears that he’s struggling.’ 

‘The Dr. Jill Biden who I’ve seen on TV in the last five years is not the same person I married or that I recognize in any way,’ Stevenson, who was wed to Jill from 1970 to 1975, said.

‘She’s matriculated into a completely different woman,’ he went on. 

‘It appears that he’s struggling with everybody these days,’ he said of the president, whom he previously alleged of beginning an affair with Jill when they were still married.

 ‘I’ve watched Jill grow,’ he continued of his former spouse, who reportedly met Joe on a blind date in 1975 set up by his brother Frank.

‘I’ve been proud of her at certain moments. I have no hard feelings,’ he said, now with a family of his own.

‘I’m just surprised to see her front and center in the middle of this battle after flying under the radar for so many years. 

‘She’s always been very driven,’ he added of his first wife, who began a career in teaching a year after meeting Joe.

‘People say she’s the one who wants to be president now,’ he went on to claim – as the idea of replacements like California‘s Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris draw newfound credibility.

His interview ended there, and seemingly came in response to reports aired hours earlier that indicated the first lady was under fire for refusing to advise her current husband to call it quits.

‘Lots of people are blaming his wife… for not telling him [to step aside],’ one Democratic donor left frustrated by Biden’s lukewarm debate performance told the Post. 

On Friday, the former schoolteacher was mocked relentlessly for claiming at a rally that her spouse did extremely well – and had ‘answered all the questions’ laid out before him.

Insiders have since said her opinion is one of the most valued in the president’s inner circle – and The New York Times reported that in private, she viewed Biden’s bumbling faceoff with his old rival as merely ‘a bad night.’

The bad night she referred to saw the Democratic Party’s top pick for the Oval Office repeatedly stumble over his words and constantly lose his train of thought, raising questions as to whether he is mentally fit for another four years.

On Saturday, those fears were further stoked when The Times reported that several Silicon Valley ‘megadonors’ were trying to reach the first lady to sway  her to convince Biden to bow out in favor of a younger candidate – attempts that seemingly were unsuccessful.

Biden, 81, doubled down on his debate performance the day before, during a rally in North Carolina where he said he was still the party’s best bet at beating Trump.

‘I know I’m not a young man, – I don’t walk as easy as I used to, I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to, I don’t debate as well as I used to,’

‘But I know what I do know,’ he continued, before receiving a round of uproarious applause. ‘I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.’

‘I know, like many of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up,’ he concluded.

Meanwhile, in an editorial, the New York Times beseeched Biden to step aside.

‘There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency,’ it said. 

‘There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump’s deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden.’

Concerned aides went on to tell Axios how Biden is often too tired to work past 4 pm and struggles to wake before 10 am.

‘This is no longer about Joe Biden’s family or his emotions,’ one particularly fed-up adviser in contact with the White House told the publication. ‘This is about our country. It’s an utter f***ing disaster that has to be addressed.’   

Experts, meanwhile, have said how it would be almost impossible for Democrats to oust an unwilling Biden at this late in the game, and that in reality the decision is ultimately up to president.

Referring to the current thought process of Biden’s team, one Democrat donor told Politico: ‘They’re saying, “we just had one bad night”…what they’re missing, a vital point they’re missing, is it’s not just one bad night. There’s no fixing this.’

In the meantime, speculation swirls not only around the prospect of a late-stage replacement, but the idea that Democrat donors may pull funding if they feel there is no hope of a Biden win.

‘The biggest problem is donors,’ another source told Politico. ‘If the money dries up, everybody will start to panic.’

Stevenson, meanwhile, has painted Biden and his family as crooked, with the president specifically a professional liar.

‘It makes me cringe every time he calls Trump a liar, because I’m telling you right now, there is no better liar than President Biden,” Stevenson told The Post.

‘He’s just a bad person. I’m probably one of the few people outside his family who has known him for 50 years.’

As of writing, Biden has aired no plans to bow out of the race.