On the campaign trail with the First Lady: Jill Biden greets kids and headlines another fundraising event on Mercer Island

Good evening, hap­py autumn, and wel­come back to NPI’s con­tin­u­ing cov­er­age of First Lady Jill Biden’s Sep­tem­ber 2023 vis­it to the Seat­tle area!

Not long ago, FLOTUS, as Dr. Biden is referred to in the lin­go of the White House press corps, com­plet­ed the final stop on her pub­lic itin­er­ary for the day: a Biden Vic­to­ry fund recep­tion at a lake­side home on Mer­cer Island.

It was the sec­ond of two cam­paign events the First Lady head­lined today for the Biden-Har­ris cam­paign and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty. I chron­i­cled both on behalf of the White House press corps as the edi­to­r­i­al pool reporter.

The jour­ney to Mer­cer Island began in Shore­line, our pre­vi­ous stop. The First Lady’s motor­cade depart­ed at 4:48 PM Pacif­ic and head­ed south.

A lit­tle more than ten min­utes before the time adver­tised on the First Lady’s sched­ule for the sec­ond recep­tion (6 PM), we were on the island.

As we approached the event loca­tion, we passed a neigh­bor wav­ing and hold­ing a big sign that read “We Love Jill Biden.” At about 5:55 PM, a very short dis­tance from our des­ti­na­tion, we made an impromp­tu stop so that the First Lady could greet a group of enthu­si­as­tic kids from the neighborhood.

Appar­ent­ly, Dr. Biden saw the crowd of young peo­ple and want­ed to say hello.

I was invit­ed to wit­ness this and took sev­er­al pho­tos. You can see for your­self how excit­ed the kids and their par­ents were to see the First Lady:

Biden briefly dis­cussed her vis­it to Mer­cer Island and then explain that she will be get­ting in her plane to go to Cal­i­for­nia after she departs the neighborhood.

One child joy­ful­ly said, “Wel­come to Plan­et Earth!” in response, prompt­ing a big round of laugh­ter and chuck­les from all of the adults in the vicinity.

The First Lady then posed for a pho­to with the kids (sev­er­al of whom were wear­ing Girl Scout uni­forms) pri­or to get­ting back into the motorcade.

We were on the move again moments lat­er and it took all of two min­utes for us to fin­ish our jour­ney. After a brief hold, I was escort­ed to the back of the home of Joe and Judy Schock­en, who host­ed this sec­ond Biden Vic­to­ry Fund recep­tion, accord­ing to the cam­paign. Their prop­er­ty abuts Lake Wash­ing­ton, with a dock and shore­line. Most of the guests were seat­ed for the remarks.

l was in posi­tion to observe at 6:19 PM. The sun was get­ting low as the event began, cast­ing the yard in a beau­ti­ful evening light.

The First Lady walked out at 6:22 PM to be intro­duced by Joe Schocken.

U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Suzan Del­Bene, Adam Smith, and Kim Schri­er (who each rep­re­sent slices of East King Coun­ty) were present. They were acknowl­edged and thanked dur­ing the intro­duc­tion along with the event’s many co-hosts, such as for­mer Ambas­sador Suzi LeVine, who couldn’t attend.

An eagle flew over­head just before Dr. Biden stepped to the podi­um, which caught the atten­tion of many of the atten­dees. Many audi­bly mar­veled at the sight. The First Lady got a stand­ing ova­tion and began speak­ing at 6:28 PM.

“I think that was a sign, that eagle,” she said.

As in Shore­line (see my pre­vi­ous report here), Dr. Biden asked if any­one was from Philadel­phia, and two peo­ple indi­cat­ed that they were.

And again, as at the pre­vi­ous event, she recount­ed meet­ing Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, their first date, and Joe Biden’s many mar­riage proposals.

“I knew if I said yes to Joe, it had to be for­ev­er,” the First Lady said.

“Over the years I’ve been con­tin­u­al­ly inspired by his resilience and his optimism.”

“Any­one can tell you what they want to do. Joe can tell you what he’s done.”

The First Lady high­light­ed many of the same accom­plish­ments she tout­ed in Shore­line (notably, the Infla­tion Reduc­tion Act and its cli­mate action pro­vi­sions, Jus­tice Jack­son’s con­fir­ma­tion, cre­at­ing jobs for Amer­i­cans), but also declared that Joe Biden had restored Amer­i­ca’s cred­i­bil­i­ty on the world stage.

She men­tioned her recent trip to New York and empha­sized how many peo­ple came up to her and said how thank­ful they were to see wise lead­er­ship at the helm of the Unit­ed States again.

Refer­ring to the Trump years, she drew a con­trast with the pre­vi­ous admin­is­tra­tion, denounc­ing “U.S. pol­i­cy dic­tat­ed by late night tweet­storms,” “relent­less attacks on our insti­tu­tions” and “con­tempt for the rule of law.”

The First Lady framed the options fac­ing vot­ers in the forth­com­ing 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion as a choice between “chaos, cri­sis, and cor­rup­tion, or strong and steady lead­er­ship that actu­al­ly gets things done.”

“You helped put him in the White House last elec­tion, and we need your help to fin­ish the job. I want to ask you to start now and talk to your friends about what’s at stake in this elec­tion. I want you to talk about how much my hus­band Joe Biden has deliv­ered for Amer­i­ca,” she said.

The First Lady then asked atten­dees to remem­ber how they felt the morn­ing after the Novem­ber 2016 elec­tion, repeat­ing her Shore­line comments.

The end of the 2024 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle is more than a year away, but Dr. Biden urged Biden Vic­to­ry Fund donors to get engaged now.

“I know it’s ear­ly, but we’re going to start ear­ly,” she said.

She con­clud­ed with (what sound­ed to me like, word for word) the same clos­ing line from the Shore­line event and got anoth­er stand­ing ovation.

The press van sep­a­rat­ed from the motor­cade and depart­ed from the recep­tion at 6:42 PM, while the First Lady was still min­gling with guests.

Dr. Biden is next head­ed to Cal­i­for­nia for the sec­ond leg of this West Coast trip, which will include cam­paign recep­tions in Los Ange­les and San Diego.

That’s it from the NPI team today! We hope you enjoyed our cov­er­age of the First Lady’s Sep­tem­ber 2023 vis­it to the Emer­ald City.