WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Jill Biden feared her husband was having a stroke as she watched then-President Joe Biden stumble through a disastrous debate performance that led to the end of his 2024 reelection campaign, the former first lady said in a recent interview.
鈥淚 was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,鈥� Jill Biden in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.
Joe Biden’s shaky, mumbling and sometimes confused delivery against Donald Trump in June 2024 gave fuel to questions voters already had about his fitness for a second term. His attempts to explain away his performance and offer reassurance that he could handle four more years of the demanding job did little to assuage voters. Under mounting pressure from within his party, he stepped aside, and Democrats nominated Vice President Kamala Harris.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what happened,鈥� Jill Biden said in the interview. 鈥淎s I watched it, I thought, 鈥極h, my God, he鈥檚 having a stroke.鈥� And it scared me to death.鈥�
The former first lady is promoting a book due out next week, 鈥淰iew from the East Wing: A Memoir.鈥�
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
