Social media erupts after Jill Biden reveals she was ‘horrified’ watching Joe’s disastrous debate

Social media erupts after Jill Biden reveals she was 'horrified' watching Joe's disastrous debate

Conservatives and a mainstream reporters who covered Biden's decline push back on the former first lady's account

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Jill Biden says she thought Biden had a stroke during disastrous 2024 debate performance

Former First Lady Jill Biden revealed in a CBS Sunday Morning interview that she was frightened by how poorly then-President Joe Biden performed during the 2024 presidential debate.

Former First Lady Jill Biden is raising eyebrows online for comments she made to CBS, recounting the alarm she felt in 2024 as she watched then-President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump.

"I wasn’t horrified, I was frightened," Jill Biden recalled in a recent interview.

"I had never, ever seen Joe like that before or since. I don’t know what happened. As I watched it, I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke.’ It scared me to death."

The former first lady’s recollections are just the most recent in a long line of commentary surrounding Joe Biden’s debate — a performance Republicans pointed to as evidence that the president, then 81, had declined too much to continue as the nation’s commander-in-chief.

FLASHBACK: THE DEBATE NIGHT AGAINST TRUMP THAT THREW BIDEN'S REELECTION CAMPAIGN INTO A FREE FALL

Former US First Lady Dr. Jill Biden revealed that she thought then-President Biden had a stroke during his 2024 debate with then-candidate Donald Trump. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images)

During that debate, Joe Biden had whispered his way through questions, famously said his administration had "defeated Medicaid" and repeatedly lost his train of thought.

Democrats maintained that the debate was an outlier, a momentary lapse for an otherwise capable Joe Biden.

Even as Jill Biden’s comments seemed to continue to make that case almost two years later, Alex Thompson, an Axios Reporter, shed doubt on her characterization.

"Biden aides told Jake Tapper and me that they had seen him act that way before and after. Those moments became more difficult to predict and conceal," Thompson said, referring to comments gathered during the writing of Original Sin, a book covering President Biden’s decline.

'ORIGINAL SIN' CO-AUTHOR EXPOSES 'FRANTIC EFFORTS' TO HIDE BIDEN'S COGNITIVE DECLINE

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump participate in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election at CNN's studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP)

"And Jill joined Biden for several campaign events after the debate, including a rally the next day," Thompson added.

Conservative commentator Kevin Dalton followed up Thomson’s observation by noting that Jill Biden’s alarm seemed to have been absent in the moments immediately following the debate.

"Of course, moments after the debate a clearly not frightened Jill Biden praised Joe for answering all the debate questions like a toddler," Dalton said.

"Sorry but this is such BS. If she genuinely was ‘frightened’ that he was having a stroke then any rational wife would have insisted he go straight to the hospital," New York Post columnist Miranda Devine said on X. "Instead she dragged him off to a Waffle House and patronized him on stage like a baby: ‘Joe – you did such a great job.’ We saw his incapacity for years. Don't try to rewrite history."

"This woman is pure evil. And an awful liar," OutKick founder Clay Travis posted on X.

"Jill Biden was SO concerned her husband had a stroke during the debate she started a ‘4 more years’ chant right after. What a power hungry sociopath," Fox News host Jimmy Failla posted on X.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said that he recalled marveling at just how bad the president’s delivery had been.

"Jill Biden thought her husband was having a stroke the night he debated Donald Trump in 2024. I kept wondering whether someone had drugged him," Lee said in a post of his own.

Benny Johnson, a conservative media personality, bashed Jill Biden, arguing that her own characterization of the moment was evidence that she knew the president’s condition was worse than she was letting on.

JILL BIDEN SHOULD HAVE TO ANSWER FOR 'COVER UP' OF FORMER PRESIDENT'S DECLINE, WHITE HOUSE SAYS

First lady Jill Biden and President Joe Biden wait for President-elect Donald Trump to arrive for inauguration ceremonies at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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"She covered it up. She didn’t tell the American people. She didn’t pull him from the race. She kept playing puppet master with the presidency," Johnson said.

"This woman let a man she believed was having a stroke continue as president of the United States. Can chalk this up as another case of elder abuse and another cover-up on the Democrats' roster," he added.

Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.

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