Former US First Lady Jill Biden admits Joe was ‘slowing down’ during presidency
Rhiannon Ingle
Featured Image Credit: Grant Baldwin/Getty Images
Former First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden, has admitted that her husband Joe Biden was 'slowing down' during his presidency with a sad health update.
Biden, 83, was the 46th president of the US, serving from 2021 to 2025. Concerns about his age and health persisted throughout his presidency, given that he was the first president to turn 80 years old while in office.
Donald Trump, however, will be the second as he's set to turn 80 later this month (14 June). He often referred to his opponent as 'Sleepy Joe Biden'.
Jill has previously opened up about Biden's disastrous 2024 debate, which saw him repeatedly stumble, revealing she thought he was 'having a stroke' during the heated exchange.
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She was speaking to CBS News Sunday Morning's Rita Braver about the terrifying moment, as she could do nothing but watch.
"I don't know what happened, as I watched it, I thought, 'Oh, my God, he's having a stroke.' And it scared me to death," Jill confessed.
She added: "I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never."
Jill added that she never saw signs that her husband was experiencing cognitive or mental decline during his term in office, with Braver highlighting that people 'were saying he wasn’t the same Joe Biden'.
"Well, I don’t think that’s true," Jill replied. "He was the same, the essence of the same Joe Biden, but yeah, he was slowing down. He was getting older. It’s a very intense job. I think it ages you, quickly. Look at the other presidents, I mean, in comparison when they started in office and got out of office. It was natural ageing."
After the 2024 debate, at a rally in Atlanta, Jill praised her husband publicly: "Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts."
She turned to the audience: "And let me ask the crowd. What did Trump do? Lie!"
Since then, NBC’s Today co-host Craig Melvin grilled Jill on her public encouragement of Biden.
"In the days and weeks after that, you continued to insist that the President was fine. How do you square thinking that he may have had a stroke with what you were saying in the days and weeks after?" Melvin asked.
Jill replied: "Well, Craig, look at it from my point of view. So, I’m 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 be, 'Jill, I really, in other words, messed up, didn’t I?'
"And I said, yes, you did."
She continued: "And so, we get off, and I know we’re going into another event, or we have two more to do, and my mind is racing. 'What do I say to him? What do I say to him?' I’m his wife. I’ve got to lift him up. 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.' My mind was racing."
"That’s a pretty low bar," Melvin responded.
"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. I mean — and we have all of our supporters, you know, so that’s who we are – I had to support him," she explained, before adding: "I couldn’t come out and, I mean, really, publicly, say, Joe, you did a terrible job in a debate?"
Despite Jill's unwavering support and his team's best effort, just months later, Biden suffered a Covid infection, and under pressure from his party, he finally made the decision to step down from his presidency.
Vice President Kamala Harris took over just three months before the election.
She became the Democratic nominee before losing the election to Trump.
Biden was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone last May.
Jill's admissions come as she is promoting the release of her book, View From the West Wing: A Memoir, today (2 June).