Former first lady Jill Biden said she believes her husband would have defeated Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election — then acknowledged in the same interview that she cannot say whether he would have been fit to serve a second term.
“I believe he would have beat Donald Trump in that election,” Jill Biden said during an appearance on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” where she was promoting a new memoir.
But when the conversation turned to whether Joe Biden could have handled the physical demands of a second term, given that he is now fighting stage four metastatic prostate cancer, Jill Biden declined to give a clear answer. “I don’t know the answer to that,” she said.
Joe Biden, 83, announced last month that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. His family said in May 2025 that the cancer is stage four and metastatic.
Biden exited the 2024 presidential race in July of that year. The decision came weeks after a nationally televised debate against Trump in which Biden struggled to complete sentences, lost his train of thought repeatedly, and at times appeared confused. The performance prompted widespread calls, including from prominent Democrats, for him to step aside.
Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination but went on to lose the November 2024 general election to Trump by a decisive margin, including losing the Electoral College 312 to 226.
Jill Biden on Tuesday described the period surrounding her husband’s exit as “painful” for their family. She said she had believed in his ability to win and stood by that view during the interview.
Democratic strategists have offered varying accounts of why Biden left the race. Some have said his June 2024 debate performance made his continued candidacy untenable. Others have pointed to months of declining poll numbers and concerns among major donors and congressional Democrats about his viability. Biden himself has maintained the decision was his own.
