Earlier this week, we told you about former first lady Jill Biden’s new excuse for why hubby and then-President Joe Biden did such an awful job in his June 2024 debate against Donald Trump.
For millions of Americans watching live, the debate transformed what had previously been dismissed by many Democrats and media figures as partisan attacks into a full-blown national issue.
Biden’s struggles during the debate triggered panic inside the Democratic Party and unleashed a wave of concern from donors, strategists, elected officials, and even longtime allies.
The fallout was immediate and historic. Just weeks later, Biden withdrew from the presidential race. Mounting pressure from fellow Democrats who feared his candidacy had become politically unsustainable did him in.
It was “Dr.” Jill in particular who came under a greater deal of scrutiny beyond all the others in Biden’s orbit.
Her role in not just influencing him to run in 2020 but her central role in urging him to run for reelection in 2024, despite clear evidence that it was way past time he stepped aside, was scrutinized.
She’s now selling a book, “View from the East Wing,” which will be available on June 2.
In a segment from a softball interview she did with the CBS News “Sunday Morning” program, she discussed the debate performance disaster, and framed it as though it was a one-off, not the Joe she saw every day.
“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 airing Sunday on CBS.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”
No way that observation even remotely squares with reality. Joe Biden, who had tripped and fallen his way through his presidency by that point, was nowhere near mentally capable for another term.
And now, President Trump has weighed in on Jill Biden’s claim.
In a Truth Social post early Friday, Trump pointed out that Biden did not seem eager to support her husband, given the thoughts she allegedly had.
“Jill Biden is now out there finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our … 2024 Presidential Debate, where Joe was not exactly performing to the highest level of debate standards,” he wrote.
“She said that she thought he was having a ‘stroke,’ and various other really bad things, and yet never rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband, as any good wife would do,” he said.
Jill Biden is now out there finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate, where Joe was not exactly performing to the highest level of debate standards. She said that she thought he was… pic.twitter.com/E8AzJ7fRLc
— Commentary Donald J Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) May 29, 2026
Ouch. But is the president wrong?
Think about what Dr. Jill said. If she really believed that, why didn’t she intervene? Why didn’t she call for some medical assistance? She was at the debate. She was the one who held his hand to help him down a couple of steps.
Trump went on to suggest that Biden was befuddled by the former president’s superior debate performance.
“Did my strong performance in that debate cause him to plain and simple ‘choke,’ leading to his ignominious defeat, or were other reasons the cause?” he wondered.
Whatever it was, it was pretty clear by June 2024 that Joe Biden’s mind was not, um, operating “optimally.” Let’s just leave it at that.
