President Joe Biden’s decision to run for reelection is not solely his idea, according to presidential historian Douglas Brinkley, who said during an interview over the weekend that the president’s wife, Jill Biden, is one of the main driving forces behind his run.

Speaking to CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” Douglas Brinkley stated, “She is the vital part. Dr. Jill Biden is it.”

He went on to say that Jill is not acting like other first ladies before her would have done, pointing out that wives of Presidents Harry Truman and Lyndon B. Johnson encouraged them to not seek a second term.

“You know, if you go back to 1952, Harry Truman could have run, and he didn’t. Why? Well, the Korean War and, you know, other reasons. But — but Bess wanted to go back to Independence [Missouri] — she didn’t like it in Washington,” he said of Truman.

Bringing up Johson’s decision to leave office, Brinkley added, “If you cut to ’68, Lyndon Johnson was – quit in March of ’68 and people will say because of Walter Cronkite. No. The big thing was his health was bad, he had a bad heart, he was smoking, high blood pressure, tension, and Lady Bird Johnson didn’t want to stay in. And she wanted – let’s go back to Texas and convinced Johnson to step down.”

He then made his case that Jill wants Biden to seek reelection because “she likes power.”

“She wants to stay,” he added. “She wants some sense of revenge. She teaches in Virginia Community College. This milieu around our building here, this is her home. And the idea of relinquishing it all after you’ve taken the slings and arrows of the last years of attacks, and at the last minute, just when you get all the delegates you’re going to say, I’m going to open it up to a bunch of people — it’s very childish when you read those kind of reports.”

Brinkley’s remarks come amid calls for Jill to persuade Biden to stand aside and let another candidate represent the Democratic Party in the 2024 election. The calls are spurred by concerns about the president’s age and cognitive health, especially after a special counsel report released earlier in the month that called him a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”