Incoming FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden could not care less about that stupid op-ed written by Joseph Epstein attacking her for being too educated.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran Epstein’s opinion piece in which he tried arguing that Dr. Biden wasn’t really a doctor because she doesn’t practice medicine.
“Jill Biden should think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic,” Epstein wrote of her use of the title, which she earned when she completed her doctoral degree in education leadership from the University of Delaware.
Dr. Biden initially responded to the op-ed with a tweet, writing: “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.”
How about we take this to the next level?
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Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) December 14, 2020
Last night, the Bidens sat down with Stephen Colbert for a joint interview, during which he asked Dr. Biden about the non-controversy.
“That was such a surprise,” she said. “It was really the tone of it. He called me ‘kiddo.’ One of the things I’m most proud of is my doctorate. I worked so hard for it.”
Dr. Biden went on to thank all the people who came out in support of her, saying she was “so grateful” and “overwhelmed by how gracious people were toward me.”
When Colbert asked Dr. Biden if maybe it was a compliment that, when people tried to find something to criticize her for, the best they could come up with was that she’s too smart, the future first lady broke out into a fit of laughter.
“OK,” she said between laughs. “I’ll take it that way!”
TONIGHT! @StephenAtHome sits down with President-elect @JoeBiden and @DrBiden and they respond to the attacks on her doctorate degree. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/HMDGxoaq27
— A Late Show (@colbertlateshow) December 18, 2020
After being dragged for the op-ed, it was revealed that this isn’t the first time 83-year-old Epstein, who received honorary doctorate degree from Adelphi University in 1988, has written an inflammatory op-ed about a topic he clearly knows nothing about.
In 1970, he published an essay in Harper’s Magazine in which he described LGBTQ people as “cursed” and “afflicted without apparent cure,” saying he wished “homosexuality off the face of the earth” and calling all gay people “n*ggers.”
Related: Writer who attacked Dr. Jill Biden also called gay people the N-word and said they’re all “cursed”
Roy Ajax
He’s a whack-job but he’s right about this. A doctorate of education is just a step up from a doctorate in woman’s studies. Not that difficult to get if you have the time and the money… of which she has plenty.
Cam
And here is the same old right wing troll always ready to attack LGBTQ people, women or minorities.
Funny how this same troll was screaming about how bright and accomplished Melania Trump, who didn’t even finish her first year of college is, and here mocks Jill Biden for finishing nearly a decade more of school than Melania.
Why do you trolls even bother trying anymore? Your lies, sexism and bigotry are so obvious it’s just sad. Oh, by the way, while we’re talking about Dr. Biden’s accomplishments, do you mid asking Melania why she lied about graduating from college?
curiobi
NO he is not right. She is more educated than him and he can’t stand it. He was so disrespectful to call a grown woman and grandmother “Kiddo”, and you can just get lost along with him for supporting his trashbag actions. You are both misogynists and embarrassing yourselves, if not the species in general. Imagine having to tell the man who wrote that article, who ia decades and decades my senior to grow the hell up!
Roy Ajax
Cam
I never said Melania was bright and accomplished. Please show me where/when I did? And I’d say the same if Jill was a Jack. It comes across as arrogant and unnecessary, especially considering she doesn’t actually do anything with that degree.
MikeM
And what level of degree do you have? Course of study? I always marvel at those who critique another’s education level without providing their own.
Roy Ajax
MIke M
I’m arguing against using useless titles and you just asked me what mine is?
AxelDC
What’s your degree in? Vibology?
MikeM
If you had spent ONE DAY doing the work and research it took for Dr. Biden to achieve her degree, you wouldn’t judge. Clearly you’ve never studied academically.
Roy Ajax
Mike M
Is it that shocking to you that someone doesn’t brag about doing something millions of other people have done? I did get a degree but I only talk about it when it’s relevant.
Cam
@Roy Ajax
Dr. Biden studied longer for her Doctorate than Trump has been president. By your logic, nobody should call Trump “Mr. President” because he did FAR less to earn that title than Dr Biden did to earn hers.
msfrost
At least her degree
, is a real degree!
Roy Ajax
Cam
Once again you fail to see the point. That’s not my logic at all. Please re-read.
boblrice
@Roy Ajax I’ll skip all of the previous pile-on and attempt to comment directly to your statement. First, it’s telling that you specifically diminish a Doctorate of Education by further diminishing a Doctorate of Women’s Studies. (Why women’s studies?) Achieving this level of education is a significant accomplishment for any area of study. It’s not just about time, but about the rigors of building a dissertation and having to defend it. Simply because the field is in social sciences instead of a more technical area does not make the process any less rigorous. You could just as easily say that becoming a medical doctor is really just a matter of having a good memory for anatomy and disease. If you personally do have a PhD and choose not to include the title in your professional life, then great. But that still gives you no license to question others in this regard. Someone with a PhD would know this.
Roy Ajax
boblrice
I can see your point where I’m deminishing someone’s achievements. I usually try not to do that, but she got the degree but is doing nothing with it. She taught high school for 15 or so years and then after her degree some college lectures but she’s not really using her degree, so it’s disingenuous of her to act like this has any real meaning in her life other than to say “i got it”. I also don’t hold someone with a University educatiaon above other people with different types of education. Mechanics, electritians, plumbers, carpenters, builders all have valuable educations and have a great deal to offer society, and something much much more important than someone with a doctorate in women’s studies, or gender studies, or gay studies.. the majority of those graduates are not even making enough money to support themselves. So maybe i’m a bit of snob with “education” but not with degrees or where you got your knowledge. It’s what you do with it.
MikeM
So, no degree? Got it. If you’re no snob, then why throw shade on Dr. Biden? Did she, personally, tell you not to call her “Mrs.”? Otherwise, you’re just minimizing her work. Some people study just for the luxury of studying. Regardless, her education enhances everything she does. I have a degree in English. I read a lot of books. It tight me not only about the characters and themes, but also about humanity, how to analyze situations, and to examine my actions and those around me. I couldn’t begin to tell you how my life would be different had I not received my degree. My dad was a plumber. My brother is a lead groundsman for a city park system. Doesn’t make me better. I couldn’t do what they do, but they couldn’t do what I do either.
Roy Ajax
MikeM
Incorrect. I said i’m a bit of snob… not about the type of degree or school, but in what someone is doing with their education. If someone gets a degree just for the sake of it, then what’s the point? That person could probably learn all they need to know through independent study. Someone getting a higher degree is to get a job… or to brag.
MikeM
Maybe, as I said twice, for the intellectual pursuit? Why do people learn hobbies? Just to show off? If that’s all you learn for, then what joy do you have in life? Why read a book if it doesn’t further my career? Why see a film if it doesn’t get me a raise?
MikeM
P.S. in the education field, your rate of pay increases the higher the degree you have. It then enhances your retirement income since most pensions are determined by your the average of your three highest years of pay.
ScottOnEarth
Just stopping by to say that you are remarkably dim.
storm45701
You said Biden actually doesn’t do anything with that degree? Dude, she is an instructor and will be the first First Lady to have a job outside the White House. I have no idea what motivates people to tear others down other than a self-serving desire to ensure that, in their mind, no one is more successful than they are.
Roy Ajax
storm45701
If they actually let her continue teaching ESL at NOVA, the cost of Secret Service for a year would greatly outweigh her salary. Two to three agents (paid between $60,000 to $120,000 each), as apposed to the average community college professor’s salary at $45,000.
Cam
@Roy Ajax
It’s funny how right wing troll accounts expose themselves. Notice how the right wing troll, in attacking Dr. Biden specifically mocks women’s studies” even though that isn’t what Biden’s degree is in?
Because right wing trolls are not only anti-LGBTQ, they also hate women, unless of course they know their place, like Melania.
Roy Ajax
Cam
I notice when you don’t have a valid argument against what was stated, you immediately go to unsubstatiated attacks. Maybe you’d benefit from Jill’s remedial english course. You’d probably understand it because one student described it as high school, but with a college twist.
Cam
@Roy Ajax
Translation: The right wing troll can’t defend it’s point so it keeps trying the whole “You missed my point” line, except it can’t define what it’s point is.
Sweetie, we get it, you’re anti-Woman, Anti-LGBTQ and here to defend bigots.
DarkZephyr
“If they actually let her continue teaching ESL at NOVA, the cost of Secret Service for a year would greatly outweigh her salary. Two to three agents (paid between $60,000 to $120,000 each), as apposed to the average community college professor’s salary at $45,000.”
So…which is it? Should she use her doctorate or not?
Roy Ajax
DarkZephyr
The course she teaches does not utilize her degree. It’s high school/remedial english. To answer your question: no she shouldn’t be teaching… because they’ll be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in security, which far outweighs her salary, just so she can satisfy her ego.
Cam
@Roy Ajax
So let’s see, the right wing troll account complains about the cost of providing security for Dr. Biden, but never once complained about the cost of Melania flying to New York to get her hair done, add air travel AND security for her. Or the cost of Ivanka and Jared taking their ski trips, or the cost of Trump’s golf trips.
This is why you right wing trolls are so ineffective. You complain about Democrats doing things when everybody has seen the Trumps do the same things only much much much more expensively and wastefully.
At least Dr. Biden is providing education to kids, Melania spent our tax dollars just to keep her hair helmet from moving.
dougie
Roy Ajax, you really don’t know what you’re talking about. At the university where I earned my Ph.D. in educational psychology and research, the Ed.D. degree was just as rigorous and demanding as the Ph.D. If you’re going to make such an uninformed statement, at least try to get your facts straight.
Josh in OR
So, a man whose degree is ‘honorary’ – in other words, unearned – is criticizing a woman who actually EARNED her doctorate? And…we’re supposed to take his mummified old ass seriously?
AxelDC
She should go by Prof. Biden to really troll them. She teaches college courses.
tjack47
My late uncle earned his PhD. In business, he was always addressed as Dr. The origin of the word doctor means “teacher”, and physician caught up to it later.
DuMaurier
It’s obviously true that if you earn a doctorate you’re entitled to use the honorific “Dr.”, and this story aside, it’s also true that some people tend to be disdainful of that if it isn’t a medical degree. Wasn’t that a running joke on “Friends” with poor Dr. Ross Geller?