“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” Jill Biden told CBS News Sunday Morning’s Rita Braver in an interview that’s Sunday on CBS.
She was talking about the disastrous June 27, 2024, presidential debate between then President Joe Biden and current President Donald Trump. Biden’s shaky performance was met with concern from Democrats and he ultimately stepped down as the party’s candidate. He was replaced by former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 election to Trump, the Republican candidate, after one of the shortest campaigns in history.
Even before the debate, there were concerns about Biden’s age and mental fitness – he was already in his 80s by the time the 2024 campaign began. Biden is also known to have overcome an issue with stuttering that lasted into his 20s. However, his wife of nearly 50 years said that his debate performance was unusual.
“I don’t know what happened,” she told CBS Morning News. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds. Risk of stroke increases with age.
While Jill Biden, who recently penned a new book, “View from the East Wing: A Memoir”, said that her husband’s debate performance was a surprise, other accounts that have come out since he left the White House indicate there were significant health concerns regarding the former president. In May of last year (what would have been the early days of his second term if he stayed in the race and managed to beat Trump), Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of metastatic prostate cancer.
Another book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson claimed that advisors were considering whether Biden would need to use a wheelchair. Tapper and Thompson allege that Biden’s camp hid health concerns related to the president from the public.
“At his debate with Trump on June 27, 2024, the consequences of… deception were exposed to the world. It was shocking and upsetting,” said the Penguin press release for the book.
Audacy also reported that Biden was becoming fatigued and having difficulty speaking at times. He reportedly told Democratic governors that he planned to get more sleep and work fewer hours near the end of this term.
Harris said in her own book published last year, “107 Days”, that letting Biden run for a second term was “reckless.” She also said it was “Joe and Jill’s” decision.
Meanwhile, the current president will become an octogenarian himself next month. According to polling from earlier this year, most Americans think that Trump is getting more erratic with age.
