Doctors "checked" on former President Joe Biden moments after his disastrous debate with President Trump — a poor performance former first lady Jill Biden said made her wonder whether her husband was having a "stroke." Previously, the Biden administration said doctors examined the president "days" following the debate, not moments after.
Jill Biden recounted the night of that 2024 presidential debate to All Things Considered Host Scott Detrow on NPR's Newsmakers video podcast.
"We got off the stage," Biden said. "I went to get my stuff. He went with his group, and then we met up in the car, and then the doctors, you know, checked him out and said, 'Oh, he's fine.'''
Few know President Biden better than his wife Jill Biden. Yet in a new memoir, View from the East Wing, Biden had few answers for what caused her husband's presidential debate performance. She called it "inexplicable."
"When people say to me, 'What happened in that moment?' … I don't know," Biden told Detrow. "I mean, I don't know what happened."
Biden insisted she had never seen the president in that state before or since, and pushed back against reports from Axios and other outlets that quoted former staffers who claimed the performance was not a one-off.
"No one came to me and said that," Biden said.
Shortly after this debate, Biden bowed out of the presidential race. Former Vice President Kamala Harris then took up the Democratic nomination and lost the election to President Trump. In Harris's own memoir, 107 Days, she criticized the Bidens for questioning her loyalty and their handling of the 2024 campaign.
Jill Biden confirmed to Detrow that her husband had planned on only serving one term as president, but that he later changed his mind.
"Originally, he thought, you know, just like you're saying, 'I'm going to do four years and get out,'" Biden said. "But then… Everybody kept saying, 'You've got to… The midterms were good. We've got to keep going.' … And so that's why he made the decision to keep running."
When asked if she would have done anything differently, Biden said she regretted the hurt her family endured.
"So to look back, I wouldn't want anybody to go through that," Biden said. "No, I never want to go through that again."
Hear more about the former first lady's life in the White House, her thoughts on Harris and why President Biden changed his mind on pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, in the full Newsmakers interview out Thursday.
NPR's Newsmakers is where you'll find NPR's biggest interviews. Follow or subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you watch or listen to podcasts so you always get the latest episode as soon as possible. You can also find Newsmakers on the NPR app.
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Tyler Bartlam and Ashley Brown contributed to this reporting.
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