Overview
- Jill Biden told CBS News she was “frightened” by her husband’s June 2024 debate performance and thought he might be having a stroke as she watched him stumble and lose his train of thought.
- The comments were released in a clip from a CBS News Sunday Morning interview that is set to air in full on May 31, 2026 and will stream on Paramount+.
- Her private alarm contrasts with the praise she gave Joe Biden in public immediately after the debate, highlighting a split between the family’s private concerns and its onstage messaging.
- Biden withdrew from the 2024 race about a month after the debate and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who ran an abbreviated campaign and lost the November 2024 election to President Trump.
- The interview supplies a close-person account but does not include independent medical evidence of a stroke, and it may influence how voters, historians and party leaders assess decisions made during the 2024 campaign.