Former first lady Jill Biden says that while watching her husband’s 2024 debate against Donald Trump, she believed he might be having a stroke. She made the remarks in a clip from an upcoming CBS News Sunday Morning interview released Wednesday, adding that th
Jill Biden didn’t just watch her husband’s debate performance unfold. She says she watched in fear.
In a clip released Wednesday from an upcoming interview with Rita Braver of “CBS News Sunday Morning. ” the former first lady recalled the moment she saw President Joe Biden onstage in the 2024 debate against then-candidate Donald Trump and thought something was medically wrong. “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. ” she said. She told Braver she was frightened because she had never seen him like that—before or since. “I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” she said.
Her recollection lands against the backdrop of a debate night that shook many Democrats. During the nearly two-hour matchup. the then-81-year-old repeatedly trailed off. failed to call out Trump’s lies. and at times offered answers to the moderator’s questions that drew concern for their coherence. Biden’s advisers later blamed the lackluster occurrence on a cold.
In the immediate aftermath, Jill Biden’s message to supporters was firm. After the debate. she praised the performance and urged her husband to stay in the race. insisting he was fit for office. “Joe. you did such a great job. you answered every question. you knew all the facts. ” she told him at a post-debate rally in Atlanta.
Even as criticism intensified in the weeks that followed, she continued to defend the campaign publicly. Speaking to supporters in Manhattan the day after the debate. she recounted what Biden told her after the event: “After last night’s debate. he said: ‘You know. Jill. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great.’ I said. ‘Look. Joe. we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president. ’” she said.
She also supported the idea—reported as something she encouraged even behind closed doors—that rough stretches were not unprecedented in politics and that Biden would come out on top. It wasn’t until roughly a month later. after mounting pressure from Democrats. that Biden ended his campaign and endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee to take on Trump. Harris only had 107 days to campaign.
There is a stark emotional tension in the timeline Jill Biden is describing: praise in public after the debate. then later an admission that watching the same moment had frightened her to the core. The sequence runs through the same stage—first as an episode she defended. then as one she now describes as a possible medical crisis.
Jill Biden plans to revisit the 2024 campaign in more detail in her soon-to-be-released memoir, “View from the East Wing,” set to publish next Tuesday.
Jill Biden Joe Biden Donald Trump 2024 presidential debate CBS News Sunday Morning Rita Braver stroke comment memoir View from the East Wing Kamala Harris Atlanta rally