Jill Biden feared her husband was ‘having a stroke’ on live television during the disastrous debate with Donald Trump that ultimately sank his reelection campaign.
‘I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,’ the former First Lady told CBS News in a recent interview.
Biden appeared frail and stumbled over his words during his infamous June 2024 clash with Trump, marking a watershed moment when Democratic allies began publicly questioning his fitness for office.
‘I don’t know what happened,’ Jill continued. ‘As I watched it, I thought, “Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.” And it scared me to death.’
The First Lady, 74, was one of Biden’s closest confidantes and a driving force behind his 2024 reelection bid.
She fiercely advocated for him to stay in the race after the debate and had a tense relationship with his ultimate successor for the Democratic candidacy, Kamala Harris.
‘You did such a great job, you answered every question, you knew all the facts,’ Jill told her husband on stage when they joined supporters after the debate.
But just weeks later, the 83-year-old was forced to drop out. Since leaving office, Biden has since been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
‘I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,’ the former First Lady told CBS News
His age and inability to communicate effectively sparked widespread health fears for Biden
Biden famously appeared frail and stumbled over his words during his infamous June 2024 debate against Trump
Biden became the first incumbent president to abandon a re-election bid since Lyndon B Johnson in 1968.
Jill’s stunning admission to CBS News comes just days before the release of her new book, View from the East Wing: A Memoir.
Biden faced widespread criticism at the time for not stepping aside sooner, once it became clear he was not capable of running for a second term.
When he finally withdrew, Biden endorsed Harris on the spot, effectively shutting the door on an open Democratic primary.
Last week, a bombshell Democratic Party autopsy underlined how Jill was prioritized over Harris by the White House during the 2024 election.
The report states Biden’s White House lavished polling and strategy on Jill, while leaving Harris so neglected that aides had no research prepared when she was thrust onto the ticket.
The 192-page dossier commissioned by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wrote that the Biden White House ordered extensive polling on the settings, issues, and messaging Dr Jill should use to support her husband’s presidency.
However, no equivalent research was ever commissioned for Harris, leaving pollsters scrambling to get three emergency studies into the field the moment Biden stepped aside in July 2024.
Jill’s stunning admission to CBS News comes just days before the release of her new book, View from the East Wing: A Memoir
Kamala Harris and Jill Biden had a tense relationship in the White House
The author, veteran Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, brands the failure a ‘massive missed opportunity’ and concludes the White House never positioned or prepared its own Vice President to face Trump.
‘As a result, at the moment of the candidate switch the polling team discovered there was no self-research on the Vice President to guide the development of the research instruments,’ Rivera wrote.
‘An incumbent Vice President. With no research to share once she became the nominee.’
‘Had the White House explored and evaluated ways to leverage Kamala Harris earlier in the administration, perhaps it would have improved the President’s standing, and it certainly could have helped prepare her to lead the ticket,’ Rivera wrote.
The dossier was initially published by CNN with heavy annotations from the DNC disputing the accuracy of many of the report’s claims.
