NBC’s Craig Melvin Presses Jill Biden on Touting Joe’s Disaster Debate Performance Despite Private ‘Stroke’ Fear

NBC’s Today co-host Craig Melvin grilled former First Lady Jill Biden on Monday over her public defense of former President Joe Biden following his disastrous 2024 debate performance after she admitted last week she feared her husband was suffering a “stroke” during the event.

Jill Biden’s admission came during an interview promoting her upcoming book, View from the West Wing: A Memoir, when she disclosed in a CBS Sunday Morning interview that she was scared “to death” by the former president’s appearance on stage against Donald Trump.

“I mean, as I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s having a stroke’ – and it scared me to death,” Jill Biden said.

The comments ricocheted online in the days that followed, even prompting a mocking take from Trump. But in a further interview on NBC on Monday morning, Melvin contrasted Jill Biden’s encouraging comments at a post-debate event as an apparent contradiction between her newly admitted fears and previous public reassurances.

CRAIG MELVIN: 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? How do you square those?

JILL BIDEN: 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 me, “Jill, I really – in other words, messed up, didn’t I?” And I said, yes, you did. 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.

MELVIN: That’s a pretty low bar.

JILL BIDEN: Well – [laughs] So, 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. I couldn’t come out and, I mean, really, publicly, say, Joe, you did a terrible job in a debate?

The debate in June 2024 became a defining moment of the presidential race as Biden appeared subdued throughout the evening and struggled through several answers

The backlash at the time ultimately intensified concern among Democrats about Biden’s age and ability to continue his campaign, triggering a wave of public and private calls for him to step aside.

Less than a month later, Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic nominee before losing to Trump in November.

Watch above via NBC.

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