(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Former First Lady Jill Biden has made seemingly contradictory statements about her husband’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle.
In the immediate aftermath of the debate, Jill publicly claimed that then-President Joe Biden had done “great.” However, in a Sunday interview promoting her new book, Jill revealed that she wondered whether he had suffered a stroke.
Those remarks resurfaced Monday during an interview on NBC News’s Today, where host Craig Melvin pressed her on the apparent contradiction.
“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?” Melvin asked.
In response, Jill claimed she wanted to “lift” her husband up and added that while he had a humiliating debate performance, he answered all the questions.
“I’ve got to lift him up,” Jill recalled thinking. “So, we go to the next event, and I’m thinking saying, what do I say that will lift him up that is true? I want to say things that are true. So, I said, you answered every question. My mind was racing.”
Apparently unconvinced by Jill’s line of defense, Melvin replied: “That’s a pretty low bar.”
Jill nevertheless doubled down, arguing it was her role to defend her husband.
“Well — 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?”
NBC's @CraigMelvin: "In the days and weeks after [the 2024 debate], 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,… pic.twitter.com/4RvIcBlfU2
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 1, 2026
The tough exchange unfolded as Jill promotes her forthcoming memoir, View from the East Wing, which is scheduled for release June 2.
