First lady Jill Biden assisted her husband Joe Biden off the debate stage Thursday night after a performance that raised even more questions about the president’s fitness for office.
CNN’s cameras captured the 81-year-old president’s wife taking her husband by the hand and slowly leading him down the stage’s three or so steps after his showdown with former President Donald Trump wrapped up.
“Who is the Commander in Chief?” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote on X, sharing a close up view of Jill Biden’s assist, in which the president appeared to be walking quite cautiously down the short stairs.
“Wow. You didn’t have to watch the debate. This says it all,” tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch tweeted.
Another X user called it the “nail in the coffin” moment for Biden’s re-election hopes.
However, some social media users with knee problems found the moment all too relatable.
“Look, my knees are bone-on-bone at age 60, so I get it,” Paula Bolyard, who notes in her bio that she is a conservative, tweeted.
“The problem was the previous 90 minutes,” she added.
Joe Biden, the oldest president in American history, repeatedly froze and misspoke during his first debate against the 78-year-old Trump.
He spoke in a soft and scratchy voice throughout the night that anonymous aides blamed on a cold.
“President Biden is a good, honorable man. He has much to be proud of. It is time to step aside and call off this run,” former New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, a Democrat, wrote on X after the end of the debate.
Follow the latest on Trump and Biden’s 2024 debate:
CNN reporter John King opened the network’s post-debate coverage by describing “a deep, a wide and a very aggressive panic in the Democratic Party” over Biden’s debate struggles.
“It started minutes into the debate — and it continues right now,” he added. “It involves party strategists. It involves elected officials. It involves fundraisers, and they’re having conversations about the president’s performance, which they think was abysmal, which they think will hurt other people down the party ticket, and they’re having conversations about what they should do about it.”
The Bidens greeted supporters at an Atlanta watch party after the debate, where Jill told him, “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question.”
“You knew all the facts,” she added.
