Former first lady Jill Biden says she still has no clear explanation for former President Joe Biden's widely criticized performance during the 2024 presidential debate, nearly two years after some believe the event reshaped the election.
Speaking on "The Jamie Kern Lima Show," released Aug. 20, Biden reflected on her husband's debate against President Donald Trump, when the then-president stumbled over his words and struggled through several answers. While she acknowledged the many theories that have emerged online, she said nothing has ever provided a definitive answer.
"I mean, there's all kinds of theories," Biden said. "I know he was tired. He didn't feel well that day when I saw him, but there was nothing definitive that I could point to."
When host Jamie Kern Lima asked whether someone could have "laced his drink or something," Biden responded, "Who knows? Who knows?"
Jill Biden says doctors found nothing wrong
Biden said she had been campaigning for two weeks leading up to the debate and had seen her husband only about an hour beforehand.
After the debate, she said the former president met with his medical team while she gathered her belongings backstage. Doctors assured her he was fine, she said, easing fears that he may have suffered a medical emergency.
Lima also asked whether doctors ruled out a stroke that night.
"They did," Biden said, adding that her only concern was whether her husband was OK.
'It was like such an aberration'
Biden said the debate remains difficult to explain because her husband went on to complete several public appearances without issue, including a speech later that night, a stop at a Waffle House and campaign events in North Carolina. She also pointed to his subsequent NATO appearances as evidence that the debate was an outlier.
"It was like such an aberration," she said. "I can't figure it out. That is my honest-to-God true answer. I don't know."
She added that the speculation surrounding the debate is likely to continue.
"It will go on forever, I'm sure," she said.
Debate remains a defining moment
The June 2024 debate performance ultimately led to the former president's decision to end his reelection campaign after weeks of mounting pressure from within the Democratic Party.
In her memoir "View from the East Wing," Biden writes that she deliberately stayed out of her husband's decision, saying she refused to tell him whether she thought he should remain in the race and instead pledged to support whatever choice he made.
She also recounts what she describes as the decisive moment. According to the memoir, longtime aide Steve Ricchetti warned her husband that a group of Democratic senators was preparing a letter urging him to step aside. She wrote that the former president, who served 36 years in the Senate, held the institution in the highest regard.
"The Senate had always been the institution that he revered above all others," she writes. "Getting that letter might have actually killed him; he'd have died from a broken heart."
After deciding to withdraw, Biden writes that then-Vice President Kamala Harris urged her husband to quickly endorse her as his successor, warning that waiting could create an opening for other Democrats to challenge her for the nomination.
How is Joe Biden's health now?
The former president is continuing treatment for an aggressive form of prostate cancer that was diagnosed in May 2025 after doctors discovered a prostate nodule. The cancer had already spread to his bones when it was diagnosed. His treatment has included radiation and hormone therapy.
Hunter Biden, during an interview with BBC Newsnight earlier this month, said his father's cancer has since "metastasized into his bones and further." Hunter described the disease as "very painful" and "very debilitating," adding that it has been difficult to watch his father deal with the illness. He also praised the former president's resilience, calling him the center of the family.
Contributing: Susan Page, USA TODAY
Reporter Anthony Thompson can be reached at ajthompson@usatodayco.com or on X @athompsonUSAT
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jill Biden reacts to 2024 presidential debate drugging theory
