Jill Biden says she ‘had to support’ her husband publicly despite her private fears after 2024 debate

Former first lady Jill Biden says she ‘had to support’ her husband, former U.S. president Joe Biden, despite her private fears after his 2024 debate with Donald Trump. (Combined image of AP photos)

Former first lady Jill Biden says she felt she “had to support” U.S. President Joe Biden publicly in the wake of his disastrous 2024 debate with Donald Trump, despite acknowledging now that she feared her husband might have been having a stroke.

Her latest comments came in an interview Monday with NBC in which she was pressed on her public insistence that Joe Biden was capable of serving four more years in the Oval Office. It comes as the former first lady launches a tour to support her new memoir, “View from the East Wing,” which is being released Tuesday.

She said Monday that during the debate, she was “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 me, ‘Jill, I really, in other words, messed up, didn’t I?’ And I said, ‘Yes, you did,’” she told NBC.

According to The Atlantic, Jill Biden writes her husband said, “I really f--ked up, didn’t I?”

• Read more: Jill Biden says she worried Joe Biden was having a stroke during 2024 debate

In a post-debate event that night, Jill Biden said, “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts.”

“What do I say to him? I’m his wife. I’ve got to lift him up,” she told NBC, describing her thought process. “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,’” she said, recalling her comments onstage. “My mind’s racing.”

“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.’ And we have all of our supporters there,” she said, adding, “That’s who we are. I had to support him.”

In late July — less than four weeks after the debate, and with the Democratic Party in a panic — Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and threw his support behind his vice-president, Kamala Harris.

Jill Biden was asked about Harris’ assertion in her own memoir last year that it was “recklessness” to leave the decision about whether Joe Biden should seek reelection to the president and first lady alone.

“That is her point of view, and if she felt that way, she should have said it,” Jill Biden said.

• Read more: Harris says leaving re-election decision to Biden was ‘recklessness,’ but she defends his abilities

She also acknowledged in the Monday interview that Joe Biden was aging in office.

“He got older, and we all saw him aging. There were words that he would forget. But, you know, we were all aging,” she said.

However, she said, the two were also assured by doctors that he was healthy, and she “saw him doing his job” and “work hours into the night” every day.

“Yes, did I see him slowing down a little bit? When he got tired, did he stutter a little bit at night? Yeah, sure. But he was still doing the job, and he was doing a good job,” she said.

In the interview, Jill Biden also addressed her husband’s 2025 prostate cancer diagnosis and his current health.

Joe Biden’s personal office revealed that May that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He started radiation therapy last fall as part of his treatment.

She said he is “doing OK.”

“If he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, that’s one thing, because that can be cured,” she said. “But the fact that it metastasized to his bones — that makes it a whole different story. So I think Joe will live with cancer for the rest of his life.”

Eric Bradner, CNN