There was a flurry of excitement on social media after First Lady Jill Biden gave a presentation during what may be one of President Biden’s last Cabinet meetings in the White House.

Biden on Friday convened his Cabinet for the first time since Oct. 2, 2023, this time with the first lady in attendance, to discuss the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research.

The president explained Jill Biden’s presence there by saying, “Here and in previous administrations, first ladies have attended these meetings for specific reasons. This is the first time Jill has joined us, and it speaks to the importance of the issue she’s about to speak on.”

He concluded by passing the baton to his wife, saying, “It’s all yours, child.”

U.S. First Lady Jill Biden speaks during her first Cabinet meeting of her husband President Joe Biden’s administration at the White House on September 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. Jill Biden spoke about the progress made by the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. ((Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))

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According to the New York Post, Jill Biden, seated at the head of the conference table in the Cabinet Room, “sat down for four and a half minutes reading from a binder about maternal health initiatives, while her husband spoke for just two minutes at the start of the meeting.”

The president traditionally sits at the center of the table, with cabinet members seated in order of their departments’ founding. The last sitting first lady to attend her husband’s cabinet meeting appears to be Hillary Clinton.

The level of influence the first lady has over Joe Biden, and therefore his administration, has often been the subject of controversy, with many commentators taking to social media to criticize her presence at the event.

According to the New York Post, Jill Biden is “seen by insiders as the most influential first lady since Edith Wilson, who tightly controlled access to her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, after he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919.”

Digital strategist Greg Price pointed to this comparison, saying, “She’s literally Edith Wilson, but out in the open and in the news 24/7, and no one in the media gives a damn.”

“Wow. A visibly exhausted Joe Biden just held his first full Cabinet meeting in 11 months and immediately handed the microphone to his wife Jill,” said former adviser to former President Donald Trump Steve Cortes. He went on to ask, “Who’s running the country?”

Political commentator Kate Hyde noted: “Jill Biden opens the first White House Cabinet meeting in almost a year and we’re expected to act as if this is normal.”

“Jill Biden is the head of the table at the Cabinet meeting. No one voted for her to be there… this must be part of her deal to get Joe out of the race,” podcaster Tim Young speculated. “She has no reason to be there.”

First lady Jill Biden, third from left, speaks during Friday’s Cabinet meeting. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, sarcastically noted, “I didn’t know our constitutional system of government granted any power to the president’s unelected wife.”

“It’s insane that the world’s #1 nuclear superpower has just stepped into a power vacuum,” mused The Hill columnist T. Becket Adams. “It’s even more insane that the vacuum has been filled by the wife of the former ruler, who has no legal authority to govern.”

“Is this real?” asked Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., “Is this who runs the country?”

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“Before President Biden updated his Cabinet and the country on the continued accomplishments of the most successful administration in modern history, he asked the First Lady to join the summit to present the groundbreaking work they are doing to fundamentally change the way we fund and approach women’s health research,” Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary, told Fox News Digital.

“If the only response these critics have is conspiracy theories that undervalue historic advances in women’s health research — including those related to terrible diseases — that says a lot about why more and more American women feel like the right just doesn’t give a damn about them, even as it pushes through sweeping abortion bans,” he added, while also taking a swipe at Hawley’s January 6 exit from the Capitol.

Fox News’ Greg Norman contributed to this report.