Jill Biden worried that her husband Joe was having a stroke amid his disaster presidential debate against Donald Trump in 2024.
In a conversation with CBS News Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver, the former first lady recounted her thoughts watching President Biden stumble through his June 2024 debate against Trump – their first major clash in the election race and one that ultimately led to Biden dropping out.
“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Dr. Jill said in a Wednesday preview clip. “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.”
Biden suffered from a scratchy throat during the 2024 debate that made him inarticulate and often inaudible, attributed by aides to a cold. His answers trailed off at times, and his odd mouth-open expressions made the case that he was too old for the job.
He tried to salvage his campaign in speeches the following day, urging his supporters at rallies that he might not be a young man or debate as strongly as he used to but that he was still the best choice for the job over “one-man crime wave” Trump.
“I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to,” he said at a rally following his poor debate performance. “But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. And I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.”
The damage was done, though. It took the urging of a number of prominent Democrats, but Biden eventually dropped out of the race a month later. That left Kamala Harris – Biden’s vice president, whom he later endorsed – a mere 107 days before the election. That also proved an insufficient amount of time to take on Trump, as he won the election for his second non-consecutive term in office.
Biden became only the second sitting president to ever drop out of an election race, following Lyndon B. Johnson back in 1968.