Former first lady Jill Biden confessed that she thought her husband, former President Joe Biden, was having a stroke during the 2024 presidential debate against Donald Trump, a performance that ended up marking the beginning of the end of his re-election campaign.

In an interview for the CBS Sunday Morning program, Jill Biden assured that she had never seen the then president in that state and recognized the emotional impact that seeing him disoriented on stage had on her.

"I was really scared, because I had never seen Joe like that before or since. Ever," he declared. "As I watched him, I thought, 'Oh my God, he's having a stroke.'"

The debate that changed the Democratic campaign

The confrontation between Biden and Trump took place on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta and generated strong doubts within the Democratic Party about the president's physical and mental capacity to continue in the electoral race.

During the debate, Biden appeared hoarse, lost track of several answers and had difficulty completing some ideas. One of the most talked-about moments occurred when he confused an answer about taxes and public health by concluding, “I think we finally beat Medicare.”

The campaign then attributed the president's performance to a cold and exhaustion from his intense travel schedule.

Jill Biden denies cognitive decline

Despite the criticism, Jill Biden assured that she never observed signs of cognitive deterioration in her husband, although she admitted that “he was losing pace” due to the demands of the position and his age.

"He was still the same Joe Biden, but he was getting older. It's very intense work," he said during the interview.

Weeks after the debate, Biden officially dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate against Trump.

The interview is part of a series of conversations related to Jill Biden's next book and offers new details about the internal moments that the family experienced after the debate that shook American politics.