Critics have long argued that President Joe Biden is mentally unfit to hold office, pointing to examples like last year's White House Easter celebration during which he appeared to take directions from First Lady Jill Biden.

Yet in a stunning development, some liberals are attempting to portray the first lady's influence in a positive light. That was the approach one columnist recently took while slamming Casey DeSantis. 

Casey DeSantis dismissed as "Walmart Melania"

In a piece published on Thursday, longtime New York Times contributor Frank Bruni complained that Mrs. DeSantis "could be RuPaul at a drag ball for all the attention she’s getting."

"When she’s with her grumpy guv, will her sunshine melt his ice? Can her aptitude for small talk make up for his allergy to it?" Bruni asked sarcastically.

"So, you go ahead and put Walmart Melania under a microscope," the columnist remarked before declaring, "I’ll be over here putting White House Jill on a pedestal."

"That Jill gets a say and gets her way was clear in a priceless anecdote that she included in her 2019 memoir, 'Where the Light Enters,'" Bruni wrote.

Bruni recalls an incident in which Mrs. Biden wrote on herself with a marker

"She recalled being by the pool and hearing her husband’s political advisers, who were inside with him, trying to persuade him to enter the 2004 presidential race. She and Joe had ruled that out," the columnist explained.

He then quoted her as writing, "A Sharpie caught my eye. I drew NO on my stomach in big letters, and marched through the room in my bikini."

"President Biden is 80," Bruni admitted, a move which suggests that the president's signs of decline have become too obvious to deny.

"It’s not ageist to observe that over the months between now and Election Day, he must pace himself carefully, watch his health closely, do all he can to decrease the odds of any stammer or stumble that will be turned against him," the columnist insisted.

Writer: "No one" can manage the president like Jill Biden

"He must stay focused and optimistic, which means tuning out as much of the Hunter Biden melodrama as he can," Bruni insisted.

"Rest is vital. The mood is pivotal. And no one — not Ron Klain, not Mike Donilon, not Anita Dunn — can help with that the way Jill can," he concluded.

If Bruni is right in saying the first lady is all but stage-managing her husband, then events like the president taking a fall at an Air Force graduation ceremony suggest that she has her work cut out for her.

BREAKING: President Biden falls on stage during the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. https://t.co/ZdwNdAd6Kg pic.twitter.com/fPI2MlbCCr

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 1, 2023