Jill Biden Restarts Kamala Harris Feud With Shady Side-Eye At Inauguration

When watching the presidential inauguration at a glance, it appeared the long-running feud between Jill Biden and Kamala Harris had ended, but a closer look showed there may still be tension between the pair. Jill and Joe Biden greeted Harris and second husband Doug Emhoff in front of the White House before handing the keys over to Donald Trump. The first lady and vice president appeared on good terms as they shared a hug and were all smiles with each other. A brief moment at the end of the interaction seemed to tell a different story.

Omg! The way Jill looks Kamala up & down! It's going to be a drama packed day! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/iFAdxAH4u5

— Nancy Sidley (@nancytsidley) January 20, 2025

Footage captured the two couples bidding farewell to the crowd, with Harris addressing spectators before they all turned to go inside. That is when Jill paused and threw a quick side-eye at her long-rumored foe. The saucy glance from Jill was picked up by eagle-eyed viewers. "The way Jill looks Kamala up & down! It's going to be a drama packed day!" one X, formerly Twitter, user tweeted alongside a clip of the exchange. "I guess [Jill] was told she had to be cordial but she didn't like it," another commented. "This is a 'real time unscripted' soap opera," a user wrote about Jill and Harris' frosty relationship.

The inauguration side-eye came only days after the two seemingly appeared to be on better terms. A photo showed Jill and Harris awkwardly clutching hands in the Oval Office while Joe gave his farewell address to the nation on January 15. "She and Doug have become like family, and to me, family is everything," Joe said. Jill reached over and grasped Harris' hand as a sign of solidarity, but she wound up holding Emhoff's hand as it rested on his wife's lap. That moment came not long after one of the pair's most tense exchanges.

Just days before the awkward three-way hand hold, Jill Biden showed icy behavior towards Kamala Harris at Jimmy Carter's funeral on January 9. When Joe Biden and Jill showed up, Harris was already seated in a pew. Instead of exchanging pleasantries, Jill sat down and looked straight ahead before shifting in her seat to move further away from the vice president. Even CNN's Jake Tapper noted that it wasn't "a typically warm greeting" between the pair. People on X who saw footage of the frigid exchange (or lack thereof) got their popcorn out while soaking up the drama. "Jill's hatred for Kamala is palpable," one user commented. "Needed soap opera music playing to really get the feel of it," another joked. "Jill making distance where there should be none," another said about the first lady's choice to slide away from Harris.

That funeral was not the only time Jill gave Harris the cold shoulder. The Bidens were seated next to Harris when they all attended the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2024. Similar to the Carter funeral, Jill and Joe showed up when Harris was already seated. The audience gave a giant round of applause as the Bidens arrived. Both Jill and Joe took time to wave to the crowd from various angles, but they did not even acknowledge Harris, who was seated right next to them.

The evidence that Jill and Harris were beefing continued to add up.

Numerous examples have been pointed out of Jill Biden exhibiting cold behavior towards Kamala Harris at public events. Jill and Joe Biden attended a Veterans Day service at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia in November 2024 alongside Harris. The vice president was the one arriving later for that event, and video showed her happily greeting those seated nearby. One person who did not seem happy to see Harris was Jill, who remained stone-faced as the VP made the rounds. "It's safe to say that Jill Biden hates Kamala Harris' guts," an X user tweeted while sharing footage of Jill's freezeout.

Perhaps some may think that people are reading too much into these tense-looking interactions between Jill and Harris, but a report from The Wall Street Journal on December 30, 2024, indicated that the feud could be more authentic than just a few clips suggested. According to the outlet, Harris' relations with Jill and Joe had been "frosty" following her election loss.

Other reports have claimed that Jill and Harris' feud dates back years to 2019. At the time, Harris was battling Joe in the Democratic primaries and had called into question his stance on desegregating bus routes — which had serious racial overtones. A book titled "This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," which was released in 2022, claimed that Jill never forgave Harris for using what she believed was a dirty tactic, per The Guardian.