Joseph R. Biden’s wife Jill Biden on Tuesday said questioning her husband’s cognitive abilities was “ridiculous” and not a fair campaign attack.
She said that Mr. Biden, 77, proves his mental agility every day with a rigorous campaign schedule.
“Joe is on the phone every single minute of the day, talking to governors who are calling him and Nancy Pelosi. He’s on the Zoom. He’s doing fundraisers. He’s doing briefings,” Mrs. Biden said on NBC’s “Today.”
She added, “He doesn’t stop from 9 in the morning until 11 at night.”
“Today” host Savannah Guthrie asked her whether it was fair for President Trump’s reelection campaign to question Mr. Biden’s cognitive abilities.
“No,” said Mrs. Biden. “It is ridiculous.”
Mr. Biden was confirmed in a DNC roll call vote Monday as the Democratic presidential nominee.
So far in the campaign, however, he frequently makes gaffes, loses his train of thought or appears confused in speeches and TV interviews.
On Monday, after Mrs. Biden delivered a livestreamed DNC speech, Mr. Biden joined her and repeated the word “lady.”
“That’s the kind of first lady, lady, lady, lady this Jill Biden will be. God love you,” said Mr. Biden, who suffered a stutter in his youth.
The Trump campaign hit Mr. Biden with a TV ad that asked “What happened to Joe Biden?”
The ad overlays clips of Mr. Biden speaking in 2015 and 2016 while he was vice president with more recent clips of Mr. Biden looking down at notes, stumbling over his words and appearing to signal to an aide for a prompt.
Mr. Trump, 74, has bragged about recently acing a test that measures whether someone is declining mentally and has challenged Mr. Biden to take it.
The Biden campaign said Mr. Trump is “spectacularly failing every conceivable strategic test” by ramping up talk of mental acuity.
• David Sherfinski contributed to this report.
