Two top Biden aides set to testify in probe of Biden mental decline

CNN

3 days ago

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Two more of Joe Biden's top White House aides are set to appear before the House Oversight Committee for scheduled interviews this week as part of the Republican-led panel's intensifying investigation into the former president's cognitive decline and possible efforts to conceal it from the public.
The committee has scheduled interviews with former Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti and former senior adviser Mike Donilon for Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. In a departure from some previous high-profile witnesses, the two have signaled they will voluntarily sit for them. As of Tuesday afternoon, the committee had not issued subpoenas compelling their appearances.
Several Biden aides have declined to cooperate with the committee's investigation, prompting the panel to subpoena their appearances. They then invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during the closed-door meetings.
Earlier this month, three Biden aides – White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor, former assistant to the president and senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal and former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office operations Annie Tomasini – pleaded the fifth in the face of questions from the panel.
Invoking the Fifth Amendment is typically done to avoid answering specific questions, and though it can be perceived by the public as a way of avoiding accountability, the US Supreme Court has long regarded the right against self-incrimination as a venerable part of the Constitution.
Still, a number of Biden aides have sat for voluntary sat for interviews with the panel. Former Biden chief of staff Ron Klain, for example, told the committee last week that Hillary Clinton had expressed concerns to him in 2023 that Biden's age was an issue the campaign hadn't dealt with effectively, and that national security adviser Jake Sullivan told him in 2024 after the presidential debate that Biden wasn't as effective as he once had been, a source familiar with the matter previously told CNN.
Klain told the committee that he believed Biden had the mental sharpness to serve as president and he saw no reason to doubt Biden's mental acuity, another source said.
A Clinton spokesman did not dispute Klain's account, but said 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.
As with Klain, Neera Tanden, the former White House Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Ashley Williams, former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations, sat for transcribed interviews.
According to a source familiar with her interview, Williams told the committee she believes that Biden was in command the night of the debate and was fit to be president, including now.
The source said Williams stated she 'did not recall' many times during her five-hour interview to several questions, including whether teleprompters were used for Cabinet meetings, if there were discussions about Biden using a wheelchair, if there were discussions about Biden undergoing a cognitive test, if she discussed Biden declining physically or mentally, if she ever had to wake Biden up, and how she got involved in his 2020 campaign. The source said that Williams would not say a good memory was an important trait for working at the White House.
An attorney representing Williams did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
The committee is expected transcribe interviews with additional high-level aides next week, including with former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed on Tuesday and former senior adviser to the president for communications Anita Dunn on Thursday.
Other former aides expected to testify in the coming months include: former special assistant to the president and senior adviser in the White House Counsel's Office Ian Sams on August 21; former deputy assistant to the president and senior deputy press secretary Andrew Bates on September 5; former assistant to the president and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on September 12; and former chief of staff Jeff Zients on September 18.
Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.