Jill Biden was alarmed, suspecting that something was amiss with her husband, Joe Biden, as he faltered on stage during the ill-fated debate against Donald Trump.
At 74, the former first lady watched anxiously, worried that the public would perceive her husband’s stumbles as a permanent trait. This concern is detailed in a revealing new memoir she has authored.
In “View From the East Wing,” Jill recounts her thoughts during the debate: “Is this a stroke? It felt like witnessing an AI hologram malfunctioning, and I wondered if he had been drugged.”
She also feared that viewers might think, “Oh God – will people watching assume this is how he is all the time?”
During the notorious June 2024 confrontation with Trump, Biden came across as frail and frequently lost his train of thought, a pivotal moment that led Democratic supporters to openly question his capability to hold office.
The adverse reaction wasn’t limited to his allies; even Joe Biden acknowledged that he had endured a disastrous performance on prime-time television, as Jill further discloses.
As Biden walked off stage, he whispered to her: ‘I really f**ked up, didn’t I?’
‘”Yes, you did,” I whispered back,’ Jill writes.
Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walk on the South Lawn of the White House after arriving on Marine One in Washington, D.C., US, on Monday, August 8, 2022
The former first lady, 74, watched in horror as Biden stumbled over his words, terrified that voters would conclude this was how he always was, she writes in a bombshell new memoir (pictured: Joe, left, and Donald Trump, right, during the presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024)
Joe Biden talks with his son Hunter Biden upon arrival at Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Delaware, on June 11, 2024
The First Lady, 74, was one of Biden’s closest confidantes and a driving force behind his 2024 reelection bid.
She fiercely advocated for him to stay in the race after the debate and had a tense relationship with his ultimate successor for the Democratic candidacy, Kamala Harris.
‘You did such a great job, you answered every question, you knew all the facts,’ Jill told her husband on stage when they joined supporters after the debate.
But just weeks later, the 83-year-old was forced to drop out. Since leaving office, Biden has since been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.
Biden became the first incumbent president to abandon a re-election bid since Lyndon B Johnson in 1968.
He faced widespread criticism for not stepping aside sooner, once it became clear he was not capable of running for a second term.
When he finally withdrew, Biden endorsed Harris on the spot, effectively shutting the door on an open Democratic primary.
Last week, a bombshell Democratic Party autopsy underlined how Jill was prioritized over Harris by the White House during the 2024 election.
Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Jill Biden attend a ceremony during the National Veterans Day Observance in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., November 11, 2024
His age and inability to communicate effectively sparked widespread health fears for Biden
The report states Biden’s White House lavished polling and strategy on Jill, while leaving Harris so neglected that aides had no research prepared when she was thrust onto the ticket.
The 192-page dossier commissioned by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wrote that the Biden White House ordered extensive polling on the settings, issues, and messaging Dr Jill should use to support her husband’s presidency.
However, no equivalent research was ever commissioned for Harris, leaving pollsters scrambling to get three emergency studies into the field the moment Biden stepped aside in July 2024.
The author, veteran Democratic strategist Paul Rivera, brands the failure a ‘massive missed opportunity’ and concludes the White House never positioned or prepared its own Vice President to face Trump.
‘As a result, at the moment of the candidate switch the polling team discovered there was no self-research on the Vice President to guide the development of the research instruments,’ Rivera wrote.
‘An incumbent Vice President. With no research to share once she became the nominee.’
‘Had the White House explored and evaluated ways to leverage Kamala Harris earlier in the administration, perhaps it would have improved the President’s standing, and it certainly could have helped prepare her to lead the ticket,’ Rivera wrote.
The dossier was initially published by CNN with heavy annotations from the DNC disputing the accuracy of many of the report’s claims.
