Jill Biden says she thought Joe was having a stroke during 2024 debate

In a clip from an upcoming interview, Former First Lady Jill Biden tells CBS news she believed her husband, former President Joe Biden, was suffering a stroke during his one and only presidential debate with Donald Trump in June 2024. Throughout the debate, Biden appeared muddled and frequently stumbled over his words, at one point uttering the phrase “We beat Medicare”.

At the time, Jill was dismissive of critics who said Joe was unfit to run for or serve a second term as President after his disastrous debate performance. After weeks of stonewalling, Biden finally bowed out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.

During the interview, Jill proclaims, “I was frightened, because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never”. However, this was far from the first time questions had been raised about the then 81-year-old Biden’s cognitive acuity. Even during his 2020 campaign, critics drew attention to numerous instances where Biden either misspoke or appeared confused. Democrats attempted to portray the flubs as the result of a lifelong stutter rather than a sign of cognitive decline.

The Hur report

In February 2024, Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur released a report to conclude his investigation into Biden’s improper retention of classified materials following his Vice Presidency. Hur’s report suggested that Biden was in mental decline as far back as 2017. Hur based this assessment on his review of recordings of interviews between Biden and Mark Zwonitzer, the co-author of Biden’s 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad”. During these interviews with Zwonitzer and his own interviews with Biden, Hur said Biden struggled to remember basic facts about his own life and career, such as the years he served as Vice President, or the year his son Beau died.

Ultimately, Hur found that Biden had improperly retained classified information, but did not recommend charges on the basis that the jury would perceive him as a “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. Nevertheless, Hur’s observations about Biden’s mental state were widely attacked in the media and rebuffed by the Biden White House.

The House Judiciary Committee has requested the recordings of the Zwonitzer interviews from the DOJ. Biden is now suing to block their release.