Dr. Jill Biden has said that, in light of her husband Joe Biden’s Stage IV prostate cancer diagnosis, she now believes he would not have been able to serve another full term in office. Speaking on The View while promoting her memoir View From the East Wing, the former first lady reflected on the fallout from Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign, his widely criticized debate performance against Donald Trump, and the decision that followed to withdraw from the race and endorse Kamala Harris.
Alyssa Farah Griffin asked Jill Biden whether she thought her husband could have handled four more years in the presidency, which would have kept him in office until age 86. Jill Biden answered, “Not from what I know now,” and said the cancer diagnosis made the situation much clearer in hindsight. She described the diagnosis as shocking and said the past few months have been difficult, adding that her husband is “doing okay” but living with a serious illness.
Biden said the cancer is advanced and has spread to his bones. She also told The Today Show in another interview that she expects Joe Biden to live with cancer for the rest of his life. Despite the diagnosis, she said he remains active, keeps a regular schedule, travels to Washington on Amtrak, speaks at Democratic events, and continues writing. “He’s Joe,” she said.
During the interview, Jill Biden also used the opportunity to urge older men to take their health seriously and not ignore symptoms. She said the couple’s doctors were “amazing,” but that Joe Biden’s cancer was missed even though he had annual physicals. According to her, routine guidance discouraging prostate cancer screening for men over 70 contributed to the diagnosis not being caught earlier. She argued that these guidelines need to change and encouraged men to seek medical attention if something feels wrong.
Jill Biden also addressed the question of whether warning signs had been visible before the debate. She rejected suggestions that aides or doctors had alerted her to a serious decline, saying no one had told her Joe Biden was aging in a way that raised concern or that something was medically wrong. She said that when she watched his debate performance on television in June 2024, she was deeply alarmed and briefly feared he might be having a stroke. However, she noted that doctors cleared him afterward and that he still completed three live events later that same night without difficulty.
Her comments add a personal and medical dimension to the political turmoil surrounding Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign, while also turning attention to prostate cancer awareness, late-stage diagnosis, and the challenges of continuing public life with a serious illness.
