In a striking rebuke from inside the Beltway elite, longtime Washington Post columnist and D.C. socialite Sally Quinn is leveling damning accusations at Dr. Jill Biden, blaming the former First Lady for what she calls a “terrible disservice to the country” by enabling her husband’s run for reelection despite clear signs of mental and physical decline.
In an interview with journalist Tara Palmeri on The Tara Palmeri Show, Quinn held nothing back, calling Jill’s continued encouragement of President Biden’s 2024 bid “elder abuse” and describing the atmosphere among establishment Democrats as “horrified” over what they saw behind closed doors.
“I blame Jill Biden for this. Jill Biden is his wife. And if Jill Biden had stood up and gone to him and said, ‘Joe, you can’t do it’… He wouldn’t have run,” Quinn said.
“She wasn’t protecting him. I thought it was elder abuse, really.”
Sally Quinn’s words carry particular weight, not just as a prominent journalist, but as the widow of legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who suffered a well-documented, years-long battle with dementia before his death in 2014. Quinn drew chilling parallels between Bradlee’s final years and what she now sees in President Biden’s public appearances.
“It looks like the beginning of dementia to me,” she remarked, referencing Biden’s now-frequent moments of wandering off stage, confusion, and memory lapses.
Her comments mirror the rising anxiety among Democrats and D.C. insiders who, according to Quinn, were near-unanimous in their private belief that Biden should not have run again.
“Everybody thought he shouldn’t run… People were just distraught.”
Quinn’s condemnation comes at a time when new revelations about Biden’s health have reignited the debate over his fitness for office. Last week, the public learned of a prostate cancer diagnosis that had allegedly gone undetected for years.
Quinn cast doubt on that narrative as well:
“It’s hard for me to believe that they didn’t know about it and were waiting to reveal it until it got too aggressive. The president of the United States has the best medical care in the world—or should.”
A Biden spokesperson told Fox News that the last recorded prostate screening for the former president occurred in 2014, an admission that has only fueled further questions about transparency and competence within the inner circle.
Adding to the pile-on is the release of “Original Sin,” a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, which paints a bleak picture of Biden’s final year in office. According to the book, top aides discussed using a wheelchair for Biden if he won a second term and described a president who routinely forgot the names of longtime staff.
These reports, coupled with Quinn’s emotional indictment of Jill Biden, amplify concerns that Biden’s inner circle prioritized power over the president’s well-being—and over the country’s stability.
The grand hostess of Washington and ultimate DC insider @sallyquinndc accuses Jill Biden of “Elder Abuse,” citing her experience caring for her late husband, Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor during Watergate who suffered with dementia. Sally does not hold back in… pic.twitter.com/B3cbU1sgdf
— Tara Palmeri (@tarapalmeri) May 21, 2025
For months, Republicans and conservative media figures have questioned Biden’s capacity, but Quinn’s accusations mark a turning point: a scathing, emotional critique from a woman embedded at the highest levels of Democratic society—not a political opponent, but a disillusioned insider.
Her assertion that Jill Biden propped up a mentally unfit man for a second run at the most demanding job in the world is already reverberating through political media. In Quinn’s eyes, this wasn’t misguided loyalty—it was a betrayal of the office, the party, and the public.
