Jill Biden says she feared Joe Biden was having a stroke during 2024 debate against Trump

Former First Lady Jill Biden has admitted that her husband’s disastrous June 2024 presidential debate performance left her deeply terrified on a medical level, revealing she feared then-President Joe Biden was suffering a stroke on live television.

“I don't know what happened,” Jill said in a newly released interview clip with CBS News. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

The June 27, 2024, debate in Atlanta between Joe Biden and Donald Trump instantly threw the Democratic Party into a panic. Throughout the 90-minute broadcast, the then-81-year-old president appeared visibly frail, spoke in a raspy, faint whisper, and repeatedly lost his train of thought or stumbled over his words.

More from World

This led to the public and political analysts immediately questioning the president’s cognitive and physical fitness for another four-year term.

"I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," the former First Lady said.

The candid admission is part of a media tour promoting her upcoming memoir, View from the East Wing, which is scheduled for release on June 2. The book is expected to heavily document her perspective during the volatile month following the debate, which ultimately culminated in Joe Biden ending his reelection bid on July 21 and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Also read | Joe Biden files lawsuit against DOJ over planned release of memoir interview recordings

A radical shift in narrative

Jill Biden’s vulnerability in the new interview stands in contrast to the fierce, protective public defence she mounted immediately following the 2024 debate.

Hours after the cameras turned off in Atlanta, the then-First Lady took the stage at a generic post-debate rally to rally supporters, enthusiastically praising her husband.

"Joe, you did such a great job! You answered every question, you knew all the facts," she told a cheering crowd at the time.

For nearly two years since, the Biden family and close aides maintained that the performance was merely an anomaly, the byproduct of a severe cold, exhaustion from international travel, and a single "bad night."

Joe Biden's exit from the 2024 race marked the first time a sitting US president withdrew from a reelection campaign so late in the cycle since Lyndon B Johnson stepped aside in March 1968.