Jill Biden has called her husband a “hero” for ending his 2024 re-election bid and claimed his advisers pushed him to run for a second term.
The former first lady, 74, made the remarks during an interview on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, where she addressed speculation that she had pressured Joe Biden, 83, to seek another four years in the White House. Rather than answering directly whether she played a “Lady MacBeth” role, she shifted responsibility to the couple’s longtime staff and Democratic Party figures.
She confirmed that Biden had originally intended to serve only a single term as president. That changed, she said, after Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterm elections, when Democrats retained Senate control and limited GOP gains in the House to a narrow House majority.
“After the midterms occurred and we won the midterms, and how you know the Democrats were doing so well, and everybody was coming to Joe and to me and saying, ‘He’s got to keep going,'” she said. “His advisors were saying that. People were saying that everywhere, out on the road. He has to run.”
Questions about Biden’s health persisted throughout his presidency, amplified by Donald Trump as he prepared his own 2024 bid. The issue became unavoidable after Biden’s faltering debate performance in June 2024, where he struggled to complete thoughts and frequently lost his train of thought. Democratic pressure mounted until Biden withdrew as the party’s nominee on July 21, 2024.
Jill Biden expressed hope that historians would eventually clarify the full context of those years. “People forget that historical context because of all the negative overlay, they forget the true story- of what happened,” she said. “And I’m hoping that it’s revealed in history – and that becomes Joe’s legacy.”
She also criticized what she characterized as unfair attacks on the family. “People just put whatever twist on it that they want, and mostly it’s negative.”
The decision to exit was Joe Biden’s alone, she emphasized, and she deliberately avoided influencing it when he asked her opinion. “I said, ‘You make this decision yourself.’ I said. ‘Whatever decision is made, you have to be able to live with it the rest of your life.’ And I said, ‘I am not going to weigh in for or against.’ And I kept true to that.”
She described the couple’s private conversation that night after his announcement, saying Biden reached for her hand in bed and told her: “Jilly, I had no choice.”
In the viral moment that defined the end of Biden’s political career, his June 2024 debate against Trump exposed visible signs of decline that allies could no longer dismiss. The performance triggered panic among Democrats, led to public calls from party figures for him to step aside, and culminated in his withdrawal exactly one month later. Congressional Republicans later subpoenaed top aides and Biden’s physician as part of an investigation into his mental fitness, with several witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment rights. Throughout, speculation circulated that Jill Biden was effectively managing operations and concealing her husband’s condition.
Joe Biden is set to offer his own account in his forthcoming memoir, “Promise Me, America,” scheduled for release on Nov. 17. In the book announcement, he indicated he would address the reasoning behind his key decisions, stating: “It’s about the challenges we face as a nation, about the decisions I made and why I made them.”
Jill Biden also disclosed she is working on a separate book about health and aging, telling Lima she wants to examine “what’s normal and what’s not normal” as people grow older. “I wanna talk about health and aging, longevity, because I don’t feel that we have a true sense of, as we age, um, is this normal?” she said.