Former first lady Jill Biden, who insisted during the 2024 presidential election that she was "all in" on her husband staying in the race after his disastrous debate performance, now says she thought he was having a medical crisis on stage.
"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 former first lady said in a clip from an upcoming interview with Rita Braver of "CBS News Sunday Morning," released by the network Wednesday.
"I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never," she told Braver.
It was former President Joe Biden's performance in the 2024 debate with now-President Donald Trump that raised broad concern among Democrats, leading many to call for him to end his bid for a second term. During the nearly two-hour debate, the then 81-year-old repeatedly trailed off, failed to call out Trump's lies and occasionally gave nonsensical answers to moderator's questions. His advisers blamed the lackluster occurrence on a cold.
At the time, the former first lady was adamant that her husband was fit for office and even praised the notorious debate performance that would derail his campaign. "Joe, you did such a great job, you answered every question, you knew all the facts," she told her husband at a post-debate rally in Atlanta.
In the weeks following the debate, Jill Biden remained an advocate for her husband's campaign and often reiterated that his poor performance did not reflect his political tenure. "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 told supporters in Manhattan the day after the debate.
Even behind closed doors, the former first lady reportedly encouraged Joe Biden to stay in the race, emphasizing that he had faced rough patches in his political career before and would come out on top. It wasn't until roughly a month later, after mounting pressure from Democrats, that the former president 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.
The former first lady discusses her husband's 2024 campaign in more detail in her soon-to-be-released memoir, "View from the East Wing," set to publish next Tuesday.
