By AlaskaWatchman.com

First Lady Jill Biden swung through Bethel on what looked a lot like a campaign rally for her president husband.

Introduced by Bethel resident and current U.S. Congresswoman Mary Peltola, the first Lady gave a brief speech to area residents, in which she carved out space to lavish praise on U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (who was also on hand) for helping to protect Alaska’s environment.

Haaland has done President Joe Biden’s bidding in working to lock up Alaska lands to most oil, gas and timber development, stirring the ire of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and many others who say Biden’s hostile stance to resource development hurts Alaska economy and overall job market.

Jill Biden’s speech went on to praise area villagers for their “bonds of family and friendship, of tribes and traditions.” She also recalled her last trip to Alaska – a 2021 stop in Anchorage on her way to the Tokyo Olympics – when she dropped by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to urge Alaskans to get experimental Covid jabs.

“I saw how acutely you are connected to the natural world around you — from the migration of salmon to the cycles of the sun,” she said in recalling her previous visit to Alaska.  “And yet, I also learned about the challenges you face — and how communities in rural areas like this one often feel unseen and unappreciated for their unique contributions to our country.”

The First Lady said she “took those stories home with me. I told them to my husband, Joe. And he listened.”

Mrs. Biden then boasted of how her husband worked with the then Democratically controlled U.S. House to pour more than $100 million into the Bethel Native Corporation to help establish high speed internet in the Y-K Delta region.

“It’s a part of his Investing in America agenda and how he’s rebuilding our country from the bottom up and the middle out,” she boasted. “This is one of the largest tribal broadband expansions in the country. With high-speed internet, you’ll have better access to critical health care, new educational tools, and remote job opportunities. It will change lives. It will save lives.”

The First Lady claimed that better internet will “help make our world a little brighter, a little more beautiful,” adding that enhanced broadband will unlock the wisdom, knowledge and experience in rural Alaska so that it can be shared around the globe.

Biden said she felt “so much love” in Bethel.

“Love for Bethel and the people who make it home — for the language and heritage that has shaped you — for the generations who stand behind you and live on in your hearts — for the young people who are dreaming a brighter future for us all,” she said.

She concluded by reminding Bethel residents of how much “Joe, Secretary Haaland, and I — along with the rest of the Biden-Harris administration — stand beside you, today, tomorrow, and always.”

The speech steered clear of Bethel’s chronically high rates of violent crime, rape and aggravated assault, or its dire educational outcomes and persistent substance abuse problems.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.

Jill Biden says faster internet will help solve rural Alaska’s myriad challenges

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


17 Comments

  • Proud Alaskan says:

    Jill read Sleepy Joe a bedtime story how sweet

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    Boiled frogs.

  • Steve says:

    I photo’d fiber optic cable as it was being washed into the Yukon River last August. As the river bank erodes, so goes the cable. Massive waste.

  • DaveMaxwell says:

    This is the baby sitter sitting on joes lap while the wife is taking a nap! Jill is more than welcome in this town. One of there own!

  • James says:

    they want to make sure they have porn so they become pervert Democrats

  • Andy says:

    Take a hike Jill, we dont need you here.

  • Lucinda says:

    How do you figure that Biden has “locked up” oil and gas in Alaska while simultaneously allowing the Willow project to proceed (against his promises BTW).

    • Bob says:

      Get your head out of the sand and do a little research. or just keep voting for Joey.

      • Lucinda says:

        Not a compelling response bob, but unsurprising.

      • Trouser Bark says:

        Don’t feed the troll, Bob. If everyone would pay as little attention to him as he deserves this would be a better place.

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    What Jillie is not telling the Alaska Natives is that the “faster internet” is actually a targeting weapon that will be used against them when the time comes. It will certainly help solve “rural challenges” because everyone in the rural areas that received this faster internet will be boiled frogs.

  • Neil DeWitt says:

    The only reason Jill went to Bethel, is because Anchorage don’t ever want her back again. Why, if she cares about natives lives, didn’t she ok the road to King Cove? That would of showed real caring for the people. Bethel doesn’t need high speed internet. We have plenty of sexual assaults and porn already.

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    GLOBAL UPRISING AGAINST WEF! – 200 Cities Protest Against Great Reset! – London Speaks Out!
    https://www.brighteon.com/cf138b75-c7f1-437c-a45e-332674d6ce47

  • Steve says:

    Notice in third paragraph that Lisa Murkowski wasn’t listed in stirring the ire of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Lisa is a sellout to the Deep State that wants total control of Alaska and our natural resources.

  • Friend of Humanity says:

    I just read in another news outlet (mustreadalaska) that iPhones, iPads, and iPods were being given away to the Bethel residents every fifteen minutes before the “rally” started. The article states that the apple products were bought with federal dollars (in other words, we paid for them). Peltola, you are a loser and the crooked government is trying to save your a$$.

  • Trouser Bark says:

    I had a friend that moved up from stateside. He was a muckety muck at a bank stateside w/ global pretensions and accepted a job as CFO at one of the native corporations. He arrived bubbly and excited about making a difference. He left about 4 years later and I asked him what his experience had been.

    He said that the kids would watch TV shows w/ beautiful people in far away places enjoying lives of privilege and excess on a big screen in their humble home and then wander out on the porch. The exposure to TV and other outside communication was exacerbating the limitations of living in the bush and lead to problems like huffing fuel and similarly stupid choices that most wouldn’t make. I listened to him prattle on with another version of a well trodden perspective and the lone kernel of wisdom he had to share was that money and more access to enhanced communication weren’t the solution; they were the problem.