Jill Biden thought husband had a stroke during 2024 debate

On the evening of June 27, 2024, millions of viewers watched with alarm and confusion as then US President Joe Biden, appearing listless and lost, made an ultimately campaign-ending appearance in his only presidential debate against Mr Donald Trump.

- Katie Rogers

Among the viewers who came away frightened was 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.