Doctors checked Biden just after Trump debate as Jill Biden feared he had a stroke

Joe Biden walks off with Jill Biden following the presidential debate on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption

Doctors "checked" on former President Joe Biden moments after his disastrous debate with President Trump — a poor performance former first lady Jill Biden said made her wonder whether her husband was having a "stroke." Previously, the Biden administration said doctors examined the president "days" following the debate, not moments after.

Jill Biden recounted the night of that 2024 presidential debate to All Things Considered Host Scott Detrow on NPR's Newsmakers video podcast.

"We got off the stage," Biden said . "I went to get my stuff. He went with his group, and then we met up in the car, and then the doctors, you know, checked him out and said, 'Oh, he's fine.'''

Few know President Biden better than his wife Jill Biden. Yet in a new memoir, View from the East Wing , Biden had few answers for what caused her husband's presidential debate performance. She called it "inexplicable."

"When people say to me, 'What happened in that moment?' … I don't know," Biden told Detrow . "I mean, I don't know what happened."

Biden insisted she had never seen the president in that state before or since, and pushed back against reports from Axios and other outlets that quoted former staffers who claimed the performance was not a one-off.

Shortly after this debate, Biden bowed out of the presidential race. Former Vice President Kamala Harris then took up the Democratic nomination and lost the election to President Trump. In Harris's own memoir, 107 Days, she criticized the Bidens for questioning her loyalty and their handling of the 2024 campaign.