„I was scared because I had never seen such a Joe before or after. Never,“ J. Biden said in an interview with CBS News, which will be broadcast on Sunday.
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CBS News shared an excerpt of this interview on Wednesday.
„I don’t know what happened,“ said the former first lady. „Looking at him, I thought: ‘Oh my God, he had a stroke.’ That scared me to death.“
Her comments are the first open admission, nearly two years after the event, of what tens of millions of Americans watched in real time. J. Biden, who was 81 at the time and concerned about his age and health, performed very poorly in the debates, which undermined his efforts to seek a second term.
Hoarse J. Biden stumbled repeatedly over words and phrases while answering questions.
J. Biden’s administration and the former first lady immediately after the debates tried to put a positive spin on what became a fiasco. That evening at an event after the debates, J. Biden said: „Joe, you did great. You answered every question. You knew all the facts.“
J. Biden’s aides claimed that these debates were an anomaly – one bad night for an elderly but still energetic and competent president.
Soon after the debates, J. Biden traveled to North Carolina, where he admitted that he „is no longer a young man.“
„I don’t walk as easily as before. I don’t speak as fluently as before. I don’t debate as well as before,“ the former U.S. president worried.
However, at the end of July – less than four weeks after the debates, with the Democratic Party in panic over catastrophic election prospects – J. Biden withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris.
The former first lady’s interview with CBS News was given at a time when J. Biden is preparing for a book tour starting June 2, aimed at promoting her upcoming memoir „View from the East Wing,“ which tells about the time spent in the White House.
J. Biden’s press representative declined to comment on his wife’s interview with CBS News.
Last spring, in an interview with ABC’s „The View,“ J. Biden noted that claims that the president’s cognitive functions worsened during his term, including in CNN journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book „Original Sin,“ are „false,“ and emphasized that there is „nothing to support that.“
J. Biden also defended her husband, stating that his agenda as president was „uninterrupted.“
„The people who wrote those books were not with us in the White House and did not see how hard Joe worked every day,“ she said.
„I mean, he would get up, work all day, and in the evening… I would lie in bed, read my book, and he was still on the phone, reading reports, working with staff,“ the former first lady continued.
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