Watch: Jill Biden Steps In as Joe Struggles to Answer 'The View' Co-Host's Question About His Cognitive Health
In an ironic moment on ABC’s “The View” on Thursday, former First Lady Jill Biden stepped in to finish a response for former President Joe Biden on whether he suffered significant cognitive decline while in office.
“The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said to Joe Biden, “Mr. President, since you left office, there have been a number of books that have come out, deeply sourced from Democratic sources, that claim in your final year there was a dramatic decline in your cognitive abilities.”
Biden looked down, and his face contorted a bit, apparently disgusted by the statement. Griffin, by adding “deeply sourced,” was, in effect, saying, “These are legitimate reports, not a few hearsay observations from people with a political axe to grind.”
She then asked, “What is your response to these allegations, and are these sources wrong?”
Joe Biden is asked if reports that he wasn’t able to do the job are accurate. Tries to answer, can’t, Jill Biden answers for him instead: pic.twitter.com/fn6t3RIAbp
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 8, 2025
“They are wrong,” Biden answered. “There’s nothing to sustain that.”
Okay, so far, so good. He’s at least responsive to the question at hand, but that’s when things began to go off the rails.
“Number two, you know, think of what we left with. We left with a circumstance where we had an insurrection when I started, not since the Civil War. We had a circumstance where we were in a position that we — well, the pandemic, because of the incompetence of the last outfit, end up over a million people dying, a million people dying,” Biden continued.
But what does any of that have to do with whether he suffered a dramatic cognitive decline during his time in office?
He continued, “And we’re also in a situation where we found ourselves unable to deal with a lot of just basic issues, which I won’t go into in the interest of time. And so we went to work, and we got it done and, you know, one of the things that — well, I’m—.”
Biden seemed at a loss at that point, prompting Jill to jump in. And she went after Farah’s assertion that the books addressing her husband’s cognitive decline were well-sourced.
“Alyssa, one of the things I think is that the people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us,” she said.
“And they didn’t see how hard Joe worked every single day. I mean, he’d get up, he’d put in a full day, and then at night he would — I’d be in bed, you know, reading my book, and he was still on the phone, reading his briefings, working with staff. I mean, it was nonstop.”
Again, that does not answer the question of whether he was suffering from cognitive decline in office.
Jill asserted, “Joe worked really hard. I think he was a great president. If you look at things today, give me Joe Biden anytime.”
The former president then responded, “That’s worth the invitation to come on the show.”
So Jill’s argument is policy-based. In fact, her wording could even lead one to believe that she’ll take a diminished Joe Biden (and herself as first lady, of course) over Donald Trump any day.
Joe and Jill at least conceded the 46th president’s debate performance against Trump was bad.
“I have not lost many debates in my life. I’m pretty good at doing that. I was sick. No excuse… I had a bad, bad night,” Joe said.
Former Pres. Biden responds to his performance at the June 2024 debate night against then-candidate Donald Trump, saying, “I had a bad, bad night.”
“We were not going to let 90 minutes of a debate define his presidency and all those years of service,” former first lady Jill… pic.twitter.com/2zdNKxnSQN
— The View (@TheView) May 8, 2025
Jill concurred: “We all saw it, it was terrible.”
When she met him on the stage afterward, he told her he “screwed up,” but used more colorful language, Jill recounted.
But he then went with her to address supporters, which she said was their way of not letting “90 minutes of a debate define his presidency and all those years of service.”
Nonetheless, most Americans drew the right takeaway from that debate night and his many other public mishaps leading up to it: “This man is not mentally fit to be president.”
And they were right.
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