{"id":607611,"date":"2026-05-28T01:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T01:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/607611\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T01:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T01:21:09","slug":"jill-biden-says-she-thought-joe-biden-was-having-a-stroke-during-2024-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/607611\/","title":{"rendered":"Jill Biden says she thought Joe Biden was &#8216;having a stroke&#8217; during 2024 debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The former first lady&#8217;s interview with CBS News Sunday Morning&#8217;s Rita Braver will air on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jill Biden has stood beside her husband throughout his decades-long career, from his time as a Delaware senator to his years as president. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">She was considered to be one of his most influential advisers during his presidency, and among those who ultimately encouraged him to step out of the 2024 race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Following the June 2024 debate, months ahead of the presidential election, Democrats expressed unease at the president&#8217;s shaky debate performance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Biden&#8217;s campaign at the time insisted the president would not step down as the Democratic candidate and that he would debate Donald Trump again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">During the debate in which both men sought a second term, Biden and Trump sparred on major topics including immigration, the economy and abortion rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But Biden&#8217;s &#8220;slow start&#8221; (as his own Vice-President Kamala Harris called it) left some Democratic leaders worried.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Biden had a raspy voice, which his team said was because he was ill, and a moment where he seemed to lose his train of thought.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Voters&#8217; concerns about Biden&#8217;s health, mental acuity and age &#8211; 81 at the time &#8211; already weighed heavily on the debate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Analysts piled on the president across most major US media outlets, with concerns raised about Biden&#8217;s ability to do the job of president as well as his chances in the November 2024 election.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was thought unlikely that Biden, the incumbent president, would be replaced as the Democratic Party&#8217;s nominee just a few months before the election. The difficult process of choosing another nominee was seen as having the potential to derail the party&#8217;s White House bid. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But his debate performance &#8211; along with gaffes during a Nato summit in the following weeks and a frail demeanour after a Covid diagnosis &#8211; ultimately led to him ending his candidacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Harris assumed the Democratic nomination about three months before the election and ultimately lost her bid to Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the aftermath of her election loss, Harris criticised her former boss, calling Biden&#8217;s decision to seek a second term &#8220;recklessness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;&#8216;It&#8217;s Joe and Jill&#8217;s decision.&#8217; We all said that, like a mantra, as if we&#8217;d all been hypnotized,&#8221; Harris wrote in her memoir. &#8220;Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former first lady&#8217;s interview with CBS News Sunday Morning&#8217;s Rita Braver will air on Sunday. Jill Biden&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-607611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}