FLASHBACK: Joe Biden mocked his wife’s desire to be called Doctor

December 17, 2020

Biden admitted that his wife's desire for the highest degree was in response to what she perceived as her second-class status on their mail, the Los Angeles Times reported in February 2009.

"She said, ‘I was so sick of the mail coming to Sen. and Mrs. Biden. I wanted to get mail addressed to Dr. and Sen. Biden.’ That’s the real reason she got her doctorate," he insisted.

Biden often joked on the campaign trail about his wife's lofty educational achievements. At the time, his spouse earned two master's degrees and worked for nearly a quarter-century as a college community instructor.

"Why don't you go out and get a doctorate and make us some real money?" Biden reportedly told her in jest.

In 2007, at age 55, Jill Biden went on to earn her doctorate in education from the University of Delaware. Since then, campaign news releases and White House announcements addressed her as "Dr. Jill Biden." The honorific has since struck elites as appropriate and others as pompous.

After obtaining a copy of her PhD dissertation, Fox News host Tucker Carlson read passages from it on Wednesday night, noting that the incoherent mess appeared to be written by someone who was "borderline illiterate," littered with typos and mathematical errors.

An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal sparked the recent public discourse over the title, which asked Jill Biden to "...think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic," given that she's not a medical doctor.

The piece's author, Joseph Epstein, faced career backlash for his controversial criticism. The former professor emeritus and lecturer for Northwestern University witnessed his name scrubbed from the school's website for his alleged "misogynistic views."

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fI7yYP-zjgY?feature=oembed