President Donald Trump repeatedly said Thursday he did not personally see signs of then-President Joe Biden‘s apparent cognitive decline during his meetings with his predecessor in 2024.
Former first lady Jill Biden reignited the conversation about her husband’s health in recent days while promoting her new book, both by suggesting she’d seen signs that Biden was “slowing down” during his final years in office and that she believed he might have suffered a stroke during his disastrous debate with Trump in the months before the election.
Reporters asked the president Thursday if during their November 2024 Oval Office meeting, Trump himself noticed a change in Biden.
“No, not really. He was the same guy I’ve been watching for a long time,” Trump responded. “I mean, you could go back 40 years, I watched him 40 years ago, 30 years ago, never the sharpest guy. … It wasn’t like he was sharp as a tack, but no, it was the same guy.”
Trump underlined that during their November 2024 meeting, Biden “was fine as far as I was concerned” and went on to suggest his own performance during their 2024 debate made Biden’s seem particularly bad.
“I thought I had a very good debate. Nobody ever says that. They say that Biden did badly. What about me? Did I do well? You know, there’s a reason he did badly,” he continued. “So, the question is, did he do badly because he choked or because he didn’t have it? But he didn’t have a good — I would say this, he did not have a good night.”
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The president added that in the meeting, Biden spoke “very softly” and “very low,” but the pair “got along really well.”
“I thought he was fine. When I say fine, I mean was he, like, talking to [Interior Secretary] Doug Burgum? Was he, like, talking to [Energy Secretary] Chris [Wright]? Was he, like, talking to any of these monsters? All these tremendous politicians and environmental geniuses?” he concluded. “He was fine.”
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.