Biden's ex-chief reveals Hillary Clinton worried about his decline
Klain, 63, sat for a transcribed interview on Thursday with the House Oversight Committee, as part of Chairman James Comer's probe into whether former Biden officials intentionally hid signs of the president's decline. A source familiar with the interview told the Daily Mail that Klain, in his testimony, said both Clinton and Sullivan raised concerns to him in 2023 and 2024 about Biden's political chances for a second term.
'Mr. Klain stated President Biden's memory got worse,' over the course of his presidency, the source said, adding the former chief of staff admitted that 'Biden was less energetic and more forgetful but he still had the acuity to govern.' Additionally, 'Sullivan told Klain that Joe Biden was less effective in 2024 compared to 2022.' Clinton did not serve in Biden's administration. But Sullivan was in near daily contact with the then-president in his role as Biden's principal foreign policy aide.
A spokesperson for Clinton did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment but did not dispute Klain's account to CNN, telling the network Clinton was concerned with how the question of Biden's age was being handled politically in light of the attacks and questions he was facing. Biden dropped out of the race in July of last year after his disastrous debate with Donald Trump in June 2024, where he froze on stage and struggled to answer questions.
A spokesperson for Sullivan pushed back on Klain's account of the timing of their conversation. 'Jake did not have a conversation with Ron about Joe Biden running for president before the debate,' Adrienne Watson, a representative for Sullivan, told Daily Mail. Klain, unlike other Biden staffers, did not plead the Fifth amendment and answered the lawmakers' questions in his appearance before the House Oversight committee. The interview took placed behind-closed doors.
Despite leaving government service after two years in the White House, Klain had an up close view of Biden in the final years of his presidency and was considered a key outside adviser. He was among the aides who helped prepare Biden for that infamous debate, running 'debate camp' at Camp David. Biden's struggles during that debate supercharged questions about his health and mental well-being that had been circulating for months.
Several Democratic leaders - including Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi - questioned his ability to remain as the party's nominee and moved to push him out of the race. Hunter Biden, the former president's son, told a podcast earlier this week that his father had been given the sleep aid Ambien ahead of the debate because of a harrowing travel schedule that preceded that contest. 'I know exactly what happened in that debate,' Hunter Biden told YouTube creator Andrew Callaghan on Monday.
'He (Joe Biden) flew around the world, basically the mileage he could have flown around the world three times. He's 81 years old.' 'They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights,' the younger Biden added. But Klain said he was unaware whether Biden took Ambien the evening before the June 2024 presidential debate and relayed that 'the president appeared tired and ill before the debate.'
There are more interviews with Biden's former staff on the docket as Republicans probe a possible coverup of the president's health and Comer has threatened to use a subpoena to entice testimony. Comer's witness list includes the most powerful figures in the Biden White House, such as aides with unfettered access to the residence where the president lived with Jill Biden and those who handled Biden's daily schedule.
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