How vengeful Jill Biden is urging 'depressed' Joe to 'burn the whole thing down' in their final days... with Obama, Kamala and Pelosi at the top of her 'naughty list'

Tis the season for revenge! For President Joe Biden is spending the remaining weeks of his presidency settling scores.

Between organizing this year's White House Christmas decorations, staff holiday parties and a string of final goodbyes, the president and his First Lady Jill Biden have been quietly sharpening the metaphorical carving knives, with their sights set firmly on the one-time allies they perceive as having wronged them.

Biden infuriated many senior members of the Democratic Party with his shocking U-turn and pardon of his son Hunter a fortnight ago, after months of publicly vowing he wouldn't make such a move.

The pardon was followed by the quiet commuting of around 1,500 sentences, including for a member of the Chinese Communist Party who had been caught with child porn on his computer.

Now, sources say, the First Lady has been egging her husband on to further inflame fury among his colleagues.

'Jill views Democrats on Capitol Hill, the [wider] party, the Obamas, staff inside and outside the White House, the media, and all of Washington DC with such misguided resentment that I can't imagine she [isn't] encouraging [Joe] to burn the whole thing down, despite his better judgment,' an insider said.

A particular target for the First Couple is said to be former house speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led the effort to push Biden out of the 2024 election race – personally calling him and demanding he quit in the hours before he withdrew on June 21.

The pair had been friends for some 50 years, but a wounded Biden has since been giving her the silent treatment. Any repair in relations is thought to be unlikely.

At the annual Kennedy Center Honors held earlier this month in DC, it was noted that Pelosi was seated far away and out of the Bidens' eye-line.

She and her husband Paul Pelosi had been guests of honor in the presidential box in previous years. Now they had been relegated to the orchestra section on the floor.

Also in attendance at the awards ceremony were vice president and recent election-loser Kamala Harris, alongside her husband Doug Emhoff. As is correct for a VP, they were in the presidential box, placed next to the Bidens. Though keen observers were quick to point out that, as the crowd stood to welcome the president and his wife, neither so much as glanced at Harris or Emhoff.

Why? One Democratic mega-donor, Floridian attorney John Morgan, is now wondering aloud whether Biden deliberately forced Kamala Harris onto the ticket – throwing his endorsement behind her within minutes of pulling out – to spite Pelosi and Barack Obama, who had also worked behind the scenes to push Biden out, and who both held serious reservations about Harris's capabilities.

'[Biden] basically had the palace coup from all directions, from George Clooney to Pelosi. I think he got pissed off [and] said, "F*** you", and gave us Harris,' said Morgan, who has known Biden for decades and attended a 'thank you' dinner for donors at the White House last month.

'Pelosi had told her delegation that there would be a convention and a nominating process. And Barack Obama did not endorse [Harris] for five days,' Morgan pointed out.

Whether Biden's endorsement of Harris was for honest reasons or not – one thing that is now certain is that the president has been giving his VP the cold shoulder after her resounding loss to Donald Trump last month, who beat her both in the popular vote and the electoral college.

Some officials told the Daily Mail that Biden genuinely believed Harris could defeat Trump and is struggling to understand how she blew the race – and a billion dollars in campaign contributions – so spectacularly.

Of course, some in the Democratic Party blame Biden himself – arguing he should have dropped out of the race far sooner than he did, and that more time would have benefited Harris's campaign.

'It's almost Shakespearean that Biden didn't just kill his own campaign, he killed hers, too,' a Harris campaign adviser rather dramatically told the Washington Post on Monday.

Either way, none of the blame shifting makes for a very merry atmosphere this holiday season, a time when DC officials usually come together to celebrate the successes of the past 12 months.

This year, there have been fewer holiday parties for staff and party supporters than in previous years – with both the president and first lady electing to be out of the country during the first week of December, when many of the events are usually held. (Biden was in Africa and Jill was in Europe).

Some Democratic members have been offered White House tours instead of a usual party invite, while some of the parties that did go ahead were scheduled at less favorable times.

The party for White House staff was at 1pm on Monday. Everyone went back to work after.

Of course, the Bidens did host a large dinner for donors on the South Lawn in November.

Guests dined in the glass pavilion with views of the Washington Monument. The Bidens held a receiving line – though no official photographs were permitted – to thank people for coming.

With Trump's second term looming, many attendees saw the dinner as their last opportunity to be at the White House – at least for a while.

Biden was seen wiping away the occasional tear as he spoke with guests.

Indeed, he's been rather melancholic in recent weeks as he wraps up his presidency and more than 50 years in public office.

'I think it's a human emotion. This has been his life and he's getting ready to transfer to a new phase,' Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell, a friend of Biden's, told the Mail.

Other friends told the New York Times on Tuesday that Biden is known to be a little seasonally depressed at this time of year – when the anniversary of the 1972 car crash that killed his first wife and daughter falls.

But the mood among White House staff is also rather gloomy – not least because they need to find new jobs while still running the country.

And there is much to do: the current resolution funding the government runs out on December 20. There is no ceasefire in the Middle East. Ukraine is still at war.

Perhaps understandably, many tired staffers are privately admitting that they are simply trying to get through the next month, before taking some much-needed time off.

Publicly at least, the Biden administration has been keen to reassure Americans that the president remains hard at work.

'President Biden is spending every day of his Presidency getting things done for the American people,' White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt wrote in a recent memo released to staff.

Not that it's done much to stop speculation about the undeniably frail president – or about his perceived feud with Harris.

In fact, at a White House women's health conference held last week, Jill Biden was widely interpreted as openly mocking Harris's campaign.

'We all need to 'feel joy' now. During this time of the season, just during this time,' she told an audience in the East Room. They burst out laughing.

'You're all reading into that,' she responded. Harris had made 'joy' a central premise of her campaign.

Party donor John Morgan believes the Bidens were lied to about the state of Harris's campaign. In the week leading up to the election, campaign staff were briefing donors and the press that their internal polling showed Harris well ahead of Trump. They said she could win all seven battleground states. In the end, she won none.

'They were lying to us, and I think they were lying to the President,' Morgan told the Mail.

Biden is now eying his next steps, which means planning for a future outside official life. He's expected by many to establish his presidential library in Delaware.

For her part, Jill Biden is retiring. She announced this week that she has taught her last semester at Northern Virigina Community College, where she has been an English professor.

'I will always love this profession, which is why I continued to teach full time while serving as your first lady,' she said in a statement.

But there may be trouble ahead. There are rumors that many Democratic donors are angry at Biden for not stepping down as nominee sooner – and, as a result, may not donate to his post-presidential efforts.

The Biden family, however, seems to be building powerful relationships elsewhere. Notably, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Archewell Foundation donated $250,000 last year to first daughter Ashley Biden's women's wellness center, in Philadelphia. The Biden's daughter got the foundation's largest donation of 2023.

Whatever happens next, Biden has made it clear he and Jill will remain in the public sphere. As he said recently: 'We're no longer going to be President and First Lady, but we're not going away.'

No doubt, not everyone in the party will be pleased to hear that.