Transcript of First Lady Jill Biden Pt 3 President Biden’s Stage 4 Cancer, His Race for a Second Term & More New

During President Biden's time in office, did you ever see signs of cognitive decline? Was there ever a moment where you thought this could impair his ability to do his job?

No.

Never? Never his entire presiden—

I mean, he would—

Coming up in this incredible part 3 episode with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden! Nothing's off limits today. Everyone's so excited to hear from you. When you are the most powerful man in the world, and you have access to the best medical care. I understand that the protocol for testing for prostate cancer isn't to test PSA over the age of 70.

That's correct.

I understand how with traditional medicine, uh, things can be missed. How, with so many things like preventative full-body MRI scans—

Yeah, like, have you had one?

Sure, I know—

I haven't.

You haven't?

But I've been thinking about it this week.

When I waitressed at Denny's, This is, I'm not kidding. I saved my tip money. I was in my 20s. So that was 20 years ago. And I did a full body MRI.

What?

I know, I did. They had them then.

They had them then?

Yeah, yeah. Now they're everywhere. How does the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States with the best medical care, how does nobody catch this? How does this not get caught?

Well, they didn't test him.

They didn't. And nobody knew or had any idea.

No.

Until I think you guys shared very shortly after you found out that he had stage 4.

Well, he— That first appointment, Jamie, I mean, right then and there, the doctor said, "Something's there." And, um, We, we just never expected that. To find out that it was stage 4 cancer that had metastasized, I mean, it was shocking. It was just shocking.

Is there any chance that the doctors in the White House, whether for past administrations or current administrations, just keep up a facade and tell the president—

I don't think so.

They weren't here.

No, no, we had incredible doctors. So how they missed it, I have no idea.

All throughout history, so many times when something goes wrong or goes awry or doesn't go as planned, somehow ultimately the woman gets blamed. There are so many people, as you know, that say Jill told Joe to run again. Jill told Joe he has to stay in even though she must have known something was wrong. Why do you think There seems to be so many theories out there that you are the decision maker behind everything.

I said, "No." I said, "You make this decision yourself." I said, "Whatever decision is made, you have to be able to live with it the rest of your life." And I said, "I am not going to weigh in for or against." And I kept true to that. It was his decision. I think people just put whatever twist on it that they want, and mostly they're— it's negative. Because in the beginning, I mean, Joe did not— was not going to run for 2 terms. He was only going to run for that 1 term. He's resigning from office because people don't feel he can do the job. At the same moment, he's arranging for the release of a hostage. He's doing the job so well. And he grabbed my hand and he said, "Jillie, I had no choice." First Lady Dr.

Jill Biden made history as the first First Lady to hold a full-time job as a college professor while also serving in her full-time role in the White House and across the country as our First Lady. She's carried unimaginable tragedies and loss, from losing her son Beau to cancer, to her other son Hunter battling extreme drug addiction, to now President Joe Biden being diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer. And she has a brand new book out called "View from the East Wing." You can get it anywhere books are sold, and it's also on Audible where the First Lady herself she herself reads it to you. And today she's opening up like never before, and nothing is off limits. I am so happy you're here and so excited for this conversation we're having together today with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. The intention of this show is to be a force for good and a force for love. I have guests on that might vote differently or love differently or pray differently from you and me, because I believe to help heal humanity through love, we must first understand the humans who make it up. I am so happy that you are here.

No matter how you vote, how you love, how you pray, you belong here. And whether today you're listening for yourself or because someone shared this episode with you, welcome to the Jamie Karl Lima Show podcast family. I'd be so grateful if you'd take 2 seconds and just hit the subscribe button on the app you're listening or watching on. That way you're gonna be the very first to get every inspirational episode. Plus, you can also get weekly inspiration into your inbox from me to you for free. Just join my newsletter at jamiekernlima.com. And thank you so much for sharing this episode with every single person you know who might need some inspiration of their own today, or perhaps some hope, because we are all in this one life together. And right now, as the First Lady shares in this episode, President Joe Biden is in the fight of his life, battling stage 4 cancer. While the First Lady agreed that today no questions were off limits, and so I do ask the most pressing question so many of us wanna know, I also wanna ask you to join me in praying for President Biden's health and strength.

And in praying for and sending love to his entire family during this time. Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima Show. Oprah, how have you defied the odds?

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Imagine overcoming self-doubt learning to believe in yourself and trust yourself and know you are enough. Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima Show.

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Jamie Kern Lima.

Jamie, you're so inspiring. Jamie Kern Lima.

So many of us can relate to moments in our family. I've had this happen with with parents and also grandparents, where we start to notice, where we have this moment where, whether it is a parent or a partner or a friend, where we're like, "Huh, I think that their memory is changing," or, "I think their cognitive functioning is starting to shift," or, "They're starting to lose their cognitive ability." During President Biden's time in office, did you ever see someone signs of cognitive decline?

Well, I saw him aging and I saw him, you know, slowing down, but I figured, well, he's 83 years old. Is this what aging is? And that's one of the things when you talk about my next book is I want to talk about health and aging, longevity, because I don't feel that we have a true sense of As we age, is this normal? Is this abnormal? Should I be calling a doctor? Should I— would it be ridiculous for me to call a doctor about this? And I don't think we really understand aging well enough about to know what's normal and what's not normal. And had we had another 4 years, That's what one of the things I would have focused on was really defining aging in this country and what are its challenges and how do we go through it, not just ourselves, but how do we go through it as a married couple? You know, how do we go through it as a family? What are our obligations? You know, how do we handle it?

How do we be caretakers? How do we be CEOs of our own health?

Yeah, there's so much to it.

Yeah. You talk about in your book as well, about, you know, going through your own journey of dealing with menopause and not even speaking to Joe about it. And, you know, in a way, sort of like suffering in silence and just powering through. And so many women do that. And just to know the difference, as you mentioned, between, aging, or is this just, is this just normal aging that you're seeing him go through? Is it actually something serious? Do you feel, was there ever a moment in the White House where you felt like his aging, whether it be signs or symptoms of normal aging, cognitive decline, whatever it might be that you saw, was there ever a moment where you thought this could impair his ability to do his job? No, never. Never his entire presence.

I mean, he would forget a word, I mean, or switch somebody's name or something. And I do that myself.

Yeah.

So it's like— and now it's kind of scary. Like, if you can't remember somebody's name, you think, oh my God, you know, is there something wrong with me? Do I have some disease? Is this normal? You know, I'm in my 70s. And so we don't know. We don't have the answers. Like you're saying about women's health and about menopause, I'm now working with women's health. I'm with Milken and I'm their chairperson of the National Health Network or the Milken Health Network. It's like we— I don't know whether you knew this or not, but all the research was was done until the 1990s, the mid-1990s, on men. There were no women in the studies, and even the mice were males. Like, how do you study menopause in a male mouse? I mean, it makes no sense. And, um, so we're pretty far behind, but the good news is that now we're catching up. And women are talking about menopause. Like before, you know, when I went through menopause, which was what, 30 years ago, it wasn't, I mean, people would talk, women would talk about it, but not like, you know, they weren't like today. Like there weren't books written about it.

You couldn't go online and find some answers. And I mean, I know myself and I write this, Yeah, I went to my doctor and the big scare when I was put on hormone therapy, it was it could give you breast cancer. And so I said to my doctor, should I stay on? Should I get off? What do you think? To my gynecologist. And she said, Jill, what do you think? What do you want to do?

And I'm like, mm-hmm.

I said, you're my doctor. You're asking me to make that decision? And that is how it used to be. And I think there's so much we need to do that we are doing. Like, we have to go into the medical schools and we have to rewrite the curriculums that deals with menopause, because I don't think there is any now. Or it's very, you know, it's like 3 pages or something in the medical books. But all of this is now changing with osteoporosis, endometriosis, menopause. I mean, we are now— I'm I hope that your audience feels hopeful.

Yes.

We are starting to get answers, 'cause we're demanding them.

Yeah.

We're not staying silent anymore.

I love that I know what your next book's about.

I'll be back.

Perfect. I did a 4-part series with Dr. Mary Claire Haver just a few months ago on menopause. Fascinating. Exactly what you're saying, that there's no training, even in the best medical schools, and how shocking that is, and how that needs to change. I think one of the biggest questions people have is when you are the most powerful man in the world and you have access to the best medical care, I understand that the protocol for testing for prostate cancer isn't to test PSA over the age of 70.

That's correct.

I understand how with traditional medicine, uh, things can be missed, but how In this day and age, how, with so many things like preventative full-body MRI scans—

Yeah, but have you had one?

Chill, I haven't.

You haven't? But I've been thinking about it this week.

Okay, you've gotta do it. So you and I were both waitresses.

Yeah.

When I waitressed at Denny's, this is, I'm not kidding, I saved my tip money. I was in my 20s, so that was 20 years ago, and I did a full-body MRI.

What?

I know, I did it, they had 'em then.

They had them then?

Yeah, yeah, now they're everywhere. Now, and when you do it, there's no radiation. Here was my rationale, is I've had friends catch things in stage 0, you know, and then it's a simple thing.

A simple fix, yeah.

This is something people are struggling to understand. How, how, and here's what I'll say, actually. When you look back in history and you see royal families, of all different countries, and you see the behind-the-scenes stories, you'll often see doctors not telling the king something's wrong. You'll often see people keeping information from people in power, uh, and there's so many theories out there on this. There's theories that how could you not have known? And so, you know, how does the most the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States, with the best medical care, how does nobody catch this? I get that there was no PSA for prostate protocol, but with any other tool, whether it's preventative medicine or anything else, full-body MRI, how does this not get caught?

Well, and you've read my book and you've listened to it and you know that's chapter 1 and that's almost how I start out. In that that's— they were the guidelines that you don't test over 70. And so I write in the book how Joe kept getting up and I went to the doc and I kept saying, "Hey, doc, like, you know, I got to teach in the morning and he's up a couple times a night and is this normal?" And so I assumed, you know, the doc would talk to Joe about it. And, um, but as it turns out, you know, he went by the guidelines of the American Urological Association saying don't test, uh, PSA, uh, over 70. And they didn't test him. They didn't.

And nobody knew or had any idea.

No.

Until I think you guys shared very shortly after you found out that he had stage 4.

Well, he kept, you know, we got out of office And he kept getting up. And I said, Joe, like, we got to address this. And so I called. Like, you would think he'd be concerned about his health. He would have called. I called and got an appointment with the urologist and said, we got to come up and get this figured out. And we went up to Philly. And I never— I mean, that first appointment, Jamie, I mean, Right then and there, the doctor said, "Something's there." And we just never expected that. We just never expected that. And then to find out that it was stage 4 cancer that had metastasized, I mean, it was shocking. It was just shocking. So there are the facts. I mean, he just— we had— we just had no idea.

Was the urologist that found it a different doctor than the doctors in the White House?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, we went up to Jefferson.

Is there any chance— I would never think this, I'm just going to ask it— is there any chance that the doctors in the White House whether for past administrations or current administrations, just keep up a facade and tell the president— I don't think they want to hear—

no, no, we had incredible doctors. They were all from Walter Reed. They honestly, they were incredible doctors, and I thought we received really excellent medical care. On the lower level, there's an actual medical office right as you right by the elevator that you go to the residence. So you can go down, you know, there anytime at all. I'm telling you, I mean, you get a scratch on your knee and they're up there with Band-Aids. I mean, they, they were really good doctors. So how they missed it, I have no idea.

I, I love how passionate you are about health, and I think that it's just a great learning for all of us that if you have the best medical care in the world and something can still be missed, that it's worth—

I agree with that.

Like, you know, figuring out how do I become the CEO of my own health? What preventative stuff is out there? You know, and it's interesting, it's hard enough to get healthcare coverage for Americans, and it's definitely a privilege to be able to do any type of preventative thing. A whole other topic as well. But anyone who is blessed enough to be able to do it, I think it's definitely worth it. When you look throughout history, because right now, I mean, first of all, in 2026, you know, you cannot be public in any way, shape, or form and not have 50 million fans and 50 million critics and all kinds of haters trying to get clicks on stories and all kinds of Conspiracy theories, it's just like an occupational hazard now. I have a lot of friends that have the top podcasts out there. And I mean, it doesn't matter what profession you're in now, if you're public in any way, yeah, it's just like everything. And also, just the amount of conspiracy theories. And it's wild how people get fed algorithms and this and that. All throughout history, so many times when something goes wrong, or goes awry, or doesn't go as planned, Somehow, ultimately, the woman gets blamed, right?

So, there are so many people, as you know, I'm not gonna share anything you don't know, that say, "Jill told Joe to run again. Jill told Joe he has to stay in, even though she must have known something was wrong." There are a million people involved, including the president himself. and making decisions on, is he going to run again, and all of the things. Why do you think there seems to be so many theories out there that you are the decision maker behind everything?

Because I think— well, first of all, I write about it in my book. And I can remember being at our beach house in Rehoboth Beach, and there was so much pressure for Joe to— step down and to step aside. And he was losing the support of the Democratic Party. And Joe said to me, "You know, what do you think, Jill? What do you think I should do?" And I said, "No." I said, "You make this decision yourself." I said, "Whatever decision is made, you have to be able to live with it the rest of your life." And I said, "I am not going to weigh in for—" for or against. And I kept true to that. And Joe's advisers came in, and they, you know, it was— but Joe, I think, saw the direction that things were going, and he decided to step aside. I mean, I thought what he did was heroic. I mean, he gave up everything. Yeah. You know, it was his decision. I think people just put whatever twist on it that they want, and mostly they're— it's negative. Yeah. And, uh, because it's, um, it's just human nature.

I think it's so important for humanity and for everyone out there to go, oh, there's this one moment in time or this one decision, but really to zoom out and go, wow, this person has been— look at it— public servant for over 50 years. Most people, they volunteered once at a food pantry, like, in 8th grade, and it was like 2 hours. He has been a public servant for over 50 years. Like, the lifetime of service, i think, also puts context around then making that decision, like george washington did. Like, i mean, making that decision to step away, Mm-hmm. From the most powerful role in the world. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's got to be hard. It was hard.

I mean, I think it was hard for him. But I can remember, you know, going upstairs that night and getting in bed. And I said, "Joe, you know, how are you doing?" And he grabbed my hand. And he said, "Jillie." I had no choice. And so, you know, he had to step aside. I mean, that's who Joe was. But I think in this whole process, I think— and I think history will prove this— and if you look back at 2023 after the midterms occurred and we won the midterms and how The Democrats were doing so well, and everybody was coming to Joe and to me and saying, "He's got to keep going. He's got to keep going. He started to do so many things. We've got to persevere. We've got to move on. We've got to build on what we've already done." And his advisers were saying that. People were saying that everywhere, out on the road. "He has to run. He has to run." And because in the beginning, I mean, Joe did not— was not going to run for two terms. He was only going to run for that one term. And I think people forget that historical context because of all the negative overlay.

They forget the true story of what happened. And I'm hoping— that it's revealed in history, and that becomes Joe's legacy, that he did it for— because he believed in, you know, listening to the American people. And I thought it was, you know, you talk about heroes. I mean, I was really proud. I knew how hard it would be, but he did it.

And I think the context is so important, you know, for everyone listening or watching right now. If you imagine yourself in the most powerful position in the world, having also been a public servant over 50 years, and then everyone around you in your party, your best advisors, everyone saying, "Run, run, run, it's you, it's you, it's you." And the day, the very hour that he was sitting—

we were sitting at our dining room table and he was writing his resignation letter. At the very same time, there's a bedroom right near our dining room in our beach house. He was in the bedroom on the phone arranging for the release of Evan Gershkowitz, you know, the hostage. And I thought, look at the irony of this. He's resigning from office because people don't feel he can do the job. At the same moment, he's arranging for the release of a hostage. He's doing the job so well that he's released— getting this hostage release. I mean, it was just unbelievable. It was just a surreal moment in time in our lives, in Joe's presidency, to experience it all. This conversation with First Lady Dr.

Jill Biden is so incredible. We made it into more than one part. She's truly opening up like never before. And sharing lessons that have changed her life and could truly impact and change yours too. You are not gonna wanna miss this incredible part 4 of our conversation with First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. That's coming up in the next episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show. Remember, this episode's not just for you and me. Please share this with every single person that you know because it can impact and change their life too. And if you love today's episode, please click the follow or subscribe button for the show on the app you're listening to it on or watching it on. And if it added value to your life, if you could please give it a rating or review, 5 stars, really, really good, I'd be so grateful. And again, share it with everyone that you believe in. Share it with another person in your life who maybe could benefit from it or is making a change in their life or carrying grief or just needs hope and inspiration. You can also post the episode and share it with others online or in your community who just might need the words and tools and lessons in this episode today.

You never know whose life you're meant to change today by sharing this episode. And thank you so much for joining me today. But before you go, I wanna share some words with you that couldn't be more true. You right now, exactly as you are, are enough and fully worthy. You're worthy of your greatest hopes, your wildest dreams, and all the unconditional love in the world. And it's an honor to welcome you to each and every episode of The Jamie Kern Lima Show. Here, I hope you'll come as you are, Heal where you need, blossom what you choose, journey toward your calling, and stay as long as you like because you belong here. You are worthy. You are loved. You are love. I love you. And I cannot wait to join you on the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima Show. And please note, I'm not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.