Jill Biden does not dismiss drugging theory for 2024 debate

Former First Lady Jill Biden did not dismiss the possibility that her husband, former President Joe Biden, might have been drugged before his June 27, 2024, debate against then-candidate Donald Trump, leaving open a conspiracy theory about his widely criticized performance. In an interview released Thursday, August 20, 2026, on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, Biden said she still could not pinpoint a definitive cause for her husband’s stumbles on stage that night, which ultimately contributed to his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.

When asked by host Jamie Kern Lima whether doctors had ruled out a stroke or if someone could have “laced his drink,” Biden replied, “Who knows? Who knows, right?” She explained that while medical staff were immediately available and examined the former president after the CNN debate in Atlanta, she was not given a concrete explanation at the time. “They said, ‘Jill, he’s fine. He’s okay,’” she recalled, but added, “That is my honest-to-God true answer. I don’t know what happened.”

Biden described feeling intense anxiety as she watched her husband struggle to complete sentences and appear to lose his train of thought. She noted that she had been...