WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer broadened his investigation of the purported cover-up of President Joe Biden’s mental decline Wednesday with interview requests for five more former White House advisers.
Comer (R-Ky.) is requesting closed-door transcribed sitdowns with former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, former de facto West Wing communications chief Anita Dunn and longtime Biden advisers Bruce Reed, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti.
“The American people deserve full transparency and the House Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation to provide answers and accountability,” Comer said.
“The cover-up of President Biden’s mental decline is one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history. These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House. They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.”
Each of the five were given a June 11 deadline to confirm either that they will appear voluntarily or that they “require a subpoena to compel [their] attendance.”
The letters request that Reed sit for questions on July 8, followed by Dunn on July 10, Donilon on July 16, Ricchetti on July 22 and Klain on July 24.
The oversight panel already has requested interviews with former presidential physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, first lady Jill Biden’s former chief of staff Anthony Bernal and the president’s former West Wing aides Annie Tomasini, Neera Tanden and Ashley Williams.
Those onetime officials are still in the process of setting dates for their sit-downs with the committee — under the threat of subpoenas if they balk at the request.
Questioning by Comer’s staff is likely to touch on President Trump’s allegation that documents auto-signed during Biden’s tenure may have been approved without his knowledge — a contention that currently lacks solid evidence despite some former Biden aides finding the theory plausible.
Comer previously led a far-reaching inquiry into Joe Biden’s role in his son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden’s international consulting work during and after their powerful relative’s eight-year vice presidency — with that probe turning up evidence that Joe Biden repeatedly interacted with his family’s foreign associates in nations where he steered US policy, such as China and Ukraine, despite his public denials.
The ongoing House probe is likely to expand to even more former Biden officials.
Comer has not yet requested appearances by Biden’s final White House chief of staff, Jeff Zients, or Stef Feldman, Biden’s staff secretary from May 2023 through January of this year — and one of the few officials who had autopen privileges.
Although former presidents can assert executive privilege over their communications with advisers, the current White House occupant — Trump — is able to override such immunity from questioning.
Biden has bristled at claims that he was mentally fading during his four-year term and last week ripped journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, the co-authors of “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.”
“You can see that I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk and I can beat the hell out of both of them,” Biden fumed May 30 following a Memorial Day event in his home state of Delaware.
