(AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Friday mocked Jill Biden for saying she thought her husband Joe was having a stroke during a 2024 election debate, accusing the former first lady of being a bad wife. During a promotional tour for her upcoming book on life in the White House, Jill Biden has been talking about the disastrous debate that forced Democratic incumbent Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid.
“Jill Biden is now out there finally admitting that she did NOT know what went wrong with Sleepy Joe during our spectacular, and highly rated, 2024 Presidential Debate,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “She said that she thought he was having a ‘stroke,’ and various other really bad things, and yet never rushed onto the stage to help her troubled husband, as any good wife would do.” Trump said “the only thing she failed to mention was how well I was doing prior to his near total collapse,” insisting his own performance caused Joe Biden to “plain and simple ‘choke.'”
Jill Biden’s revelations have reignited Democratic infighting about Biden’s age just as the battered party was hoping to move on and focus on November’s crucial US midterm elections. In the debate against Republican Trump, then 81-year-old Biden stumbled on his words and stared open-mouthed.
“As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death,” Jill Biden told “CBS News Sunday Morning” in a clip released Wednesday. In her memoir “View from the East Wing,” which is being published on June 2, she also wondered if Biden had accidentally taken a sleeping pill or codeine cough syrup.
Immediately after the debate, Jill Biden publicly praised her husband’s performance, telling him in front of supporters: “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question, you knew all the facts.” But in the book, Jill Biden says her husband asked her if he had messed up the debate, and that she replied: “Yes, you did.” Joe Biden later dropped out of the White House race in favor of his vice president Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump.
© 2024 AFP
