Former US First Lady Jill Biden has revealed that she feared her husband, then-President Joe Biden, was suffering a stroke as she watched his widely criticised performance at the first 2024 presidential debate. "I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," she told CBS News Sunday Morning in an interview preview released this week. "I don't know what happened. As I watched it, I thought, 'Oh my God, he's having a stroke.' And it scared me to death."
The debate, held on 27 June 2024, pitted the then-81-year-old Democratic incumbent against Republican rival Donald Trump. On stage, Biden appeared to walk stiffly, spoke with a raspy voice — which his team attributed to illness — and at points seemed to lose his train of thought entirely, at one moment trailing off before confusingly declaring, "We finally beat Medicare." The performance stood in stark contrast to his two previous debate appearances against Trump during the 2020 election cycle. Immediately after the debate, Jill Biden appeared at a post-debate rally and praised her husband's performance, though Democratic leaders and donors privately expressed deep alarm.
The fallout was swift and damaging. Senior Democrats called on Biden to step aside, and while his campaign initially insisted he would remain in the race, a series of further stumbles — including gaffes at a NATO summit and a frail public appearance after a COVID diagnosis — eroded confidence further. Biden ultimately suspended his re-election campaign on 21 July 2024, endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination but lost the November election to Trump. In her memoir, Harris later described Biden's decision to seek a second term as "recklessness", writing that Democrats had repeated the phrase "It's Joe and Jill's decision" almost like a mantra.
Jill Biden's comments come ahead of the publication of a memoir in which she reflects on her time as first lady, and the full interview is due to air on Sunday. The revelations add a personal dimension to ongoing debates about Biden's health and fitness for office during his presidency — questions that have continued well beyond his departure from the White House. Biden was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer earlier this year, and Trump has directed the Justice Department to investigate whether officials concealed any health conditions Biden may have had while in office. Biden has firmly denied any suggestion that he was not in full control of his administration, and the Justice Department reportedly found insufficient evidence to bring a case against him or his aides.
The episode remains a defining moment in recent American political history, illustrating the risks of an incumbent seeking re-election at an advanced age and the speed with which public confidence can collapse. Biden was 81 at the time of the debate; Trump, who won re-election, will be 82 by the end of his current term.