Jill Biden has revealed what her husband Joe said to her in the moments after his disastrous TV debate with Donald Trump in June 2024. In her new memoir, View from the East Wing, she admits she feared Joe was 'having a stroke' during the live debate.
According to an excerpt seen by the Atlantic, Joe whispered 'I really f****d up, didn’t I?' moments after leaving the stage. Jill replied: 'Yes, you did'. She also shared that the then-president was immediately checked over by doctors, who said he was fine.
Jill put on a brave face for the public, appearing to congratulate her husband during a joint post-debate event hours later, telling him he 'answered every question' and leading the crowd in a chant of 'four more years'. However, just 24 days later, after sustained pressure from senior Democrats, Biden announced he was pulling out of the race.
In the memoir, Jill questions the White House's communications strategy of blaming his poor performance on a cold, saying they should have simply acknowledged that he 'looked very unwell'. She added: 'There was never a satisfying enough explanation offered for Joe's debate performance, and a lot of people never got over it.'
The memoir also details Joe Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis after leaving office, with Jill writing that warning signs began during their final year in the White House when he started waking up repeatedly in the middle of the night. He underwent five and a half weeks of daily radiation treatment and hormone therapy.
