Watching Joe Biden falter under the debate lights was so unsettling for Jill Biden that she feared, in the moment, he might be suffering a stroke on live television, she says in a new interview set to air this weekend.
“I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” the former US first lady told ‘CBS News Sunday Morning’ in an interview to be broadcast this weekend.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said in a clip released last night.
Ms Biden added: “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”
Then US president Joe Biden walks off stage with his wife Jill following the debate
The debate, featuring the then 81-year-old president squaring off against Donald Trump, quickly became a flashpoint. Mr Biden stumbled over his words, stared open-mouthed at times and repeatedly lost his train of thought as he tried to push back against his bombastic rival.
Even so, Ms Biden offered immediate public reassurance in the debate’s aftermath. Standing before a crowd of supporters, she praised her husband’s showing, telling him: “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question; you knew all the facts.”
Mr Biden’s debate performance nonetheless ignited deep anxiety inside the Democratic Party about his evident decline — concerns that eventually culminated in his decision to leave the White House race and back then-vice president Kamala Harris.
Ms Harris went on to lose to Mr Trump after an abbreviated campaign.
