SouthernWorldwide.com – First Lady Jill Biden has revealed her profound distress during President Joe Biden’s widely criticized 2024 debate performance, stating she feared he was having a stroke.
Her recollection, shared in a recent interview, described a moment of intense fear. “I wasn’t horrified, I was frightened,” Jill Biden stated, adding, “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.”
These comments add to the ongoing discourse surrounding President Biden’s debate, which Republicans frequently cited as evidence of his unsuitability for the presidency due to his age at the time, 81.
The debate itself was marked by Joe Biden’s subdued delivery, including a notable statement about his administration having “defeated Medicaid” and frequent lapses in his train of thought.
Despite such moments, Democrats largely maintained that the debate was an anomaly, a brief stumble for an otherwise capable leader.
However, Axios reporter Alex Thompson has cast doubt on Jill Biden’s narrative, suggesting that the President’s aides had witnessed similar episodes before and after the debate. Thompson noted these difficult-to-predict and conceal moments in the context of his reporting for the book “Original Sin,” which details President Biden’s perceived decline.
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“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 elaborated.
Thompson further pointed out that Jill Biden participated in several campaign events with her husband following the debate, including a rally the very next day, which he suggests might seem contradictory to her expressed level of alarm.
Conservative commentator Kevin Dalton echoed Thompson’s sentiment, observing that Jill Biden’s immediate post-debate reaction did not appear to reflect the fear she described later. Dalton recalled her praising Joe Biden’s debate performance in terms he described as akin to a toddler’s.
Senator Mike Lee of Utah also shared his reaction to the debate, stating he was astonished by the President’s performance. Lee humorously recounted his own thoughts, suggesting he wondered if the President had been drugged.
Media personality Benny Johnson criticized Jill Biden, arguing that her later admission of fear indicated a prior awareness of the President’s condition that was not disclosed to the public. Johnson alleged a cover-up and suggested it was a case of elder abuse.
“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 stated. He further commented, “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.”
