Jill Biden Confesses She Feared Husband Joe Was 'Having a Stroke' During 2024 Debate
Al Jazeera Staff
Former U.S. first lady Jill Biden has opened up for the first time about her husband President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the first 2024 presidential debate, revealing she initially thought he was having a stroke. The debate is widely seen as the turning point that ended his reelection campaign.
Former U.S. first lady Jill Biden has shared her first public account of what she described as her husband President Joe Biden's catastrophic performance in the first 2024 presidential debate—an event widely seen as the turning point that ended his reelection campaign.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning released Wednesday (April 2), Jill Biden responded to reporter Rita Braver's question about her emotions while watching the debate.
Asked if she was horrified as the debate unfolded, Jill Biden replied: “I wasn't horrified. I was scared, because I had never seen Joe like that before or after. Never.”
Explaining what happened on June 27, 2024, when her husband, then the sitting president, took the stage to debate Republican challenger Donald Trump, Jill Biden said: “I don't know what happened. When I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke,’ and that scared me to death.”
A turning point for Biden
Both Joe and Jill Biden have largely stayed out of the spotlight since the 2024 election, in which Trump won a second, non-consecutive term.
Critics have pointed to the debate performance as damaging Biden's reelection bid and fueling speculation about his declining health. Biden was 81 at the time. The following year, he was diagnosed with malignant prostate cancer.
Although Biden had debated Trump twice before during the 2020 election, his 2024 appearance drew widespread criticism. On stage, Biden appeared stiff and struggled to maintain a coherent train of thought. At one point, he went off on a tangent and suddenly declared: “We finally beat Medicare.”
The live televised debate sparked discussions about the advanced age of both candidates and whether Biden was physically fit to continue leading. Members of Biden's own party called on him to suspend his reelection campaign, which he ultimately did on July 21, 2024—less than four months before the vote.
Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic nomination, but her abbreviated campaign ended in defeat to Trump.
Trump continues questioning Biden’s health
Since then, Trump has sought to portray Biden as incapable of controlling his own administration. This has partly fueled Trump's efforts to undo his predecessor's executive actions.
Trump has claimed that executive orders and pardons issued by Biden are invalid because Biden or his staff used an autopen. Trump himself used the device while in office.
Trump has also called on the Justice Department to investigate whether government officials tried to conceal any health conditions Biden may have had while in office. The New York Times reported in March that the Justice Department ultimately lacked evidence to prosecute Biden or his aides.
For his part, Biden has denied allegations of cognitive decline while in office. “I want to make this clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden declared last year. “I made the decisions on pardons, executive orders, laws, and statements. Any suggestion otherwise is absurd and false.”
Biden sues the Justice Department
Trump and Republican allies continue to investigate Biden's health and mental fitness when he was president. Their efforts were spurred by a report from special counsel Robert Hur, who was tasked with an independent investigation into Biden's handling of classified documents.
Hur declined to bring charges but explained that his decision was partly due to Biden's advanced age. The report described Biden’s memory as “significantly limited” and Hur questioned whether a jury would believe Biden intentionally retained classified documents.
To reach his conclusions, Hur cited audio recordings and transcripts of Biden’s conversations with the ghostwriter of his memoir, “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.” Those materials largely date from 2016 and 2017, before Biden’s 2020 presidential victory. At that time, he was out of office.
However, Trump allies have sought to make the documents public, presenting them as evidence that Biden was unfit for office even before taking office in 2021. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is among the groups petitioning for their release.
On Tuesday (April 1), Biden sued the Justice Department to block the release of the documents, citing privacy concerns. The lawsuit explains that Biden shared sensitive personal details with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer, including the death of his son Beau.
“When the U.S. Department of Justice obtains such private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a special responsibility to protect it from disclosure,” the lawsuit states.
Trump responded to Biden’s lawsuit by calling the Democratic opponent a “lying politician” on social media. The Republican leader also faces questions about his own mental health. If he serves a full term, Trump will be 82 at the end of his presidency—a few months older than Biden was when leaving office.
