Jill Biden’s Reaction to Biden’s 2024 Debate: ‘He’s Having a Stroke’

On the evening of June 27, 2024, millions of viewers watched with alarm and confusion as President Joseph R. Biden Jr., appearing listless and lost, made an ultimately campaign-ending appearance in his only presidential debate against Donald J. Trump. Among the viewers who came away frightened: his wife, Jill Biden. “I don’t know what happened,” the former first lady said in an interview with “CBS News Sunday Morning.” “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.” In a 30-second snippet of the interview, which is scheduled to air in full this weekend, she said that she had never seen her husband have a meltdown like the one she saw when he took the debate stage in Atlanta. Next week, she is releasing “View From the East Wing,” a memoir of her time as first lady. Mr. Biden, who had made back-to-back trips to Europe in the weeks leading up to the debate, has said that he was recovering from an illness that evening. When Mr. Biden was preparing at Camp David, his team had built naps into his schedule. Despite the extra rest, a raspy-sounding Mr. Biden mumbled and wandered through his appearance as Mr. Trump hammered him on immigration and foreign policy. “I was frightened,” Dr. Biden told CBS of what she saw that night, “because I had never, ever seen Joe like that. Before or since. …