NBC’s Today co-host Craig Melvin pressed Jill Biden on her public encouragement of former President Joe Biden after the disastrous 2024 debate — which has come into sharp focus again after revelations about her concerns over his health.
Melvin’s questioning of the former first lady comes after she admitted in a CBS Sunday Morning interview that she thought her husband was having a stroke during the debate.
“In the days and weeks after that, you continued to insist that the President was fine. How do you square thinking that he may have had a stroke with what you were saying in the days and weeks after?” Melvin asked.
Jill Biden explained that she felt that in that moment she needed to be encouraging to her husband — but also had to say something true.
“Well, Craig, look at it from my point of view. So, I’m watching, just like everybody else was, scared to death, like, what is going on. He gets off the stage, I see he appears to be OK. He says to be, ‘Jill, I really, in other words, messed up, didn’t I?” she recalled. “And I said, yes, you did.”
She continued: “And so, we get off and I know we’re going into another event, or we have two more to do, and my mind is racing. ‘What do I say to him? What do I say to him?’ I’m his wife. I’ve got to lift him up. So, we go to the next event, and I’m thinking what do I say that will lift him up that is true? I want to say things that are true. And so, I said, ‘You answered every question.’ My mind was racing.”
“That’s a pretty low bar,” Melvin responded.
“I had to sort of lift him up. I’m his wife. I’m not going to get out on the stage there and say, Joe, you really screwed that up. I mean — and we have all of our supporters, you know, so that’s who we are – I had to support him,” she responded, before adding: “I couldn’t come out and, I mean, really, publicly, say, Joe, you did a terrible job in a debate?”
Biden’s performance in the 2024 presidential debate sparked intense concern among Democrats about the president’s age and ability to win re-election. Biden ended his re-election bid a month later and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic nominee before losing the election to Trump.
The former first lady’s admissions about her husband’s debate performance come as she is promoting the release of her book, View From the West Wing: A Memoir, on Tuesday.
While promoting the book, Jill Biden made headlines after admitting in an interview with CBS News’ Sunday Morning that her husband was “slowing down” toward the end of his presidency.
Despite the admission, she insisted that she never saw any signs that he was in cognitive or mental decline while president.
“He was the same, the essence of the same Joe Biden, but yeah, he was slowing down. He was getting older. It’s a very intense job. I think it ages you, quickly. Look at other presidents, I mean in comparison when they started in office and go out of office. It was natural aging,” she said.
Jill Biden also gave an update on the former president’s health, after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer just four months after leaving office.
“He’s doing well, but it was a shock,” she said. “Honestly, I can remember getting the diagnosis, and it was just shocking.”
When asked if the cancer should’ve been discovered when he was still in the White House, she replied, “Well, you know the doctors said that, according to the American Urological Association, that men over 70 don’t need a PSA, a blood test, any more because it’s a slow-growing cancer…”
“I do feel like we had amazing care in the White House, but somehow that was missed,” she added.
The former first lady’s book will be released Tuesday.
