Dr. Jill Biden has said that her PhD, the subject of a controversial opinion column in the Wall Street Journal, is an achievement she is most proud of.
“That was such a surprise,” she told CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert on Thursday, sitting next to her husband, Joe Biden. “It was really the tone of it … He called me ‘kiddo’. One of the things I am most proud of is my PhD. I mean I worked so hard for it. “
Joseph Epstein, a former adjunct professor at Northwestern University, wrote for the journal, suggesting that her doctorate in education from the University of Delaware did not entitle her to the honorary title of “Dr.” as she was not medically qualified. Her use of “Dr” therefore feels “fraudulent, not to say a little comical,” he wrote.
The column was met with widespread outrage and accusations of sexism, as well as the apparent hypocrisy of many counselors. right wing attacks. The editor of The Journal’s editorial page defended the column, calling the critics “overwrought.”
Dr. Biden was about maximizing student retention in community colleges. She also has two master’s degrees. She has said she will continue to work in education while she is first lady.
“I taught all eight years when I was a second lady,” she told Colbert, referring to the eight years her husband was vice president of Barack Obama.
“I am really looking forward to becoming a first lady and doing the things I did as a second lady. Continue with military families and education and free community college, cancer [research] that, you know, Joe and I both worked on it. And then I will also teach. “
She also said her husband attended to defend her thesis – “I got to hand her her PhD on the podium, the University of Delaware,” he said – and thanked those who defended her against Epstein’s attack.
“Look at all the people who supported me,” she said. “I mean I’m so grateful and I was, you know, I was just blown away by how gracious people were.”
Colbert asked the president-elect if the column had made him stand up for his wife, “to get out of the pool chain and fill these people with Corn Pop.”
That was a reference to comments he was criticized for in the Democratic primary, reminiscing about facing a bully at a swimming pool in the Delaware of his childhood.
The president-elect seemed tempted, but Dr. Biden said, “The answer is no.”
He said, “I’ve been suppressing my Irishness for a long time.”
He was also asked if he would be willing to work with Republicans who attacked him and in particular his son, Hunter Biden.
“If it benefits the country, then I really mean it,” he said. ‘It doesn’t mean I wasn’t angry. This doesn’t mean that if I was back in high school, I wouldn’t say, “Come here, you know, and go for a spin.”
Maybe he felt a relapse – Biden started his presidential run, saying he wanted to fight Donald Trump – Dr. Biden intervenes again.
“But you have to take the main road,” she said.