华盛顿——吉尔·拜登说，成为第一夫人“比我想象的要难一点。”
她在下周播出的采访中告诉“哥伦比亚广播公司周日早上”，她的新角色是一项24小时的工作，而不是那种在某个时间结束的工作。
“我觉得这比我想象的要难一点，”第一夫人在被问及是否为自己的新生活做好了准备后说。“这不像你做的工作，而是你过的生活方式，也不是你5点或3点就离开的东西。而且是一天24小时。”
在采访中，吉尔·拜登她还对关于乔·拜登总统精神健康的猜测嗤之以鼻，并表示她理解他为什么要从他试图让国会通过的一项主要社会福利法案中削减一项免费社区大学的提议。
她对自己一直以来都是第一夫人的观察来自于这样一个人，她成年后的大部分时间都生活在公众的视野中，并观察过——和——她的一些前任共事过。
1977年他们结婚时，乔·拜登已经是公众人物，是特拉华州的美国参议员。吉尔·拜登在多次竞选参议员连任和三次竞选总统期间都为他和他一起竞选。当乔·拜登还是巴拉克·奥巴马总统的副总统时，吉尔·拜登和第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马在军人家庭问题上密切合作。
当被问及放弃社区大学的提议时，吉尔·拜登听起来像她的丈夫，她说:“我理解妥协。我知道现在不是时候。”
她是一名经验丰富的社区大学教授，仍然以第一夫人的身份教书。她希望她长期倡导的这些学校的免费学费将来会有回报。
拜登总统放弃了该法案中的免费社区大学和其他提议，试图让民主党参议员更容易接受该法案，他们曾表示对其最初的规模感到不舒服。
79岁高龄的总统是最年长的官员，他一直是社交媒体上无情的迷因和政治对手评论的主题，这些评论暗示他精神上不适合担任公职。
他70岁的妻子说，质疑他精神健康的民调是“荒谬的”。
拜登总统参加了白宫的部分采访，并被问及如何与结婚44年的妻子分享这段经历。
“我是个幸运的人，”他说。“吉尔是我一生的挚爱，也是我一生的挚爱。”
Jill Biden says being first lady is 'harder than I imagined'
WASHINGTON -- Jill Biden says being first lady “is a little harder than I imagined."
She tells “CBS Sunday Morning” in an interview set to air next week that her new role is a 24-hour undertaking and not the kind of job that ends at a certain hour.
“I think it’s a little harder than I imagined,” the first lady said after being asked if she was prepared for what her new life would be like. "It’s not like a job that you do, it’s a lifestyle that you live, and it’s not something you leave at 5:00 or at 3:00. And it’s 24 hours a day.”
In the interview,Jill Bidenalso scoffed at speculation about President Joe Biden's mental fitness and said she understood why he cut a proposal for free community college from a major social welfare bill he's trying to get Congress to pass.
Her observation about being first lady all the time comes from someone who has lived most of her adult life in the public eye and has watched — and worked with — some of her predecessors.
Joe Biden was already a public figure, a U.S. senator from Delaware, when they married in 1977. Jill Biden campaigned for and with him during his many Senate reelection bids and his three campaigns for president. When Joe Biden was vice president to President Barack Obama, Jill Biden and first lady Michelle Obama worked closely together on military family issues.
Asked about dropping the community college proposal, Jill Biden sounded like her husband when she said: “I understand compromise. And I knew this was not the right moment for it.”
She is a veteran community college professor who still teaches as first lady. She held out hope that her longtime advocacy for free tuition at these schools will pay off in the future.
President Biden dropped free community college and other proposals from the bill in an attempt to make the it more palatable to Democratic senators who had said they were uncomfortable with its original size.
The president, the oldest officeholder at age 79, has been the subject of unrelenting social media memes and comments from political opponents suggesting he is mentally unfit for office.
His wife, who is 70, said polls questioning his mental fitness are “ridiculous.”
President Biden joined a portion of the interview at the White House and was asked about sharing the experience with his wife of 44 years.
“I’m a lucky man," he said. "Jill is the life of my love and the love of my life.”
