Comer demands interviews with former top Biden aides as part of probe into mental acuity
Comer on Wednesday sent letters to former chief-of-staff Ron Klain, senior adviser Anita Dunn, former counselor Steve Ricchetti, and aides Michael Donilon and Bruce Reed.
'The scope of your responsibilities — both official and otherwise — and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive's condition — or to perform his duties — Congress may need to consider a legislative response,' Comer wrote in a letter to Klain.
While the letters demand a transcribed interview, they also ask the recipients if they 'will require a subpoena to compel your attendance.'
The Hill reached out to Klain and a representative for Dunn for comment but was not immediately able to reach the other aides for comment.
Comer during the last Congress requested interviews with three other White House aides, as well as Biden's physician.
New books, including 'Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,' have reignited debate about Biden's mental acuity while in office and whether he experienced cognitive decline.
Since President Trump took office, the GOP has taken a number of steps focusing on Biden.
The White House confirmed Tuesday that pardon attorney Ed Martin would be reviewing Biden's pardons for his family members, as well as some other clemencies granted during his final days in office.
And the Justice Department last month released the full tapes of Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur, one in which the attorney said Biden appeared to have memory lapses. While president, Biden released the full transcript of the conversation.
Biden, through a spokesperson, has rejected claims he did not have the mental acuity to manage the presidency.
'We continue to await anything that shows where Joe Biden had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job,' a spokesperson said in response to the book release.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom praised for new online posting style: All Caps and mimicking Trump
California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is earning plaudits for his recent trolling of President Donald Trump by mimicking his social media habits, including all-caps posts. Newsom, a frequent foil for the president's social media outbursts, took to X Tuesday night to blast 'DONALD 'TACO' Trump,' -- a reference to 'Trump Always Chickens Out,' coined by a financial columnist over the president's back-and-forth tariff policies. Trump has been pushing several red states to gerrymander their congressional maps to give Republicans an upper hand, amid growing fears that the GOP could lose the House in next year's midterms. The maps are typically redrawn every ten years following the census, and not in the middle of the decade. Newsom sent Trump a letter Monday calling on him to end the 'unprecedented, mid-decade, hyper-partisan gerrymander to rig the upcoming midterm elections.' 'If you will not stand down, I will be forced to lead an effort to redraw the maps in California to offset the rigging of maps in red states,' he wrote. 'But if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same. And American democracy will be better for it.' Newsom subsequently posted on X that Trump had 24 hours to respond to the letter. On Tuesday, as the deadline passed, he wrote: 'DONALD 'TACO' TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, 'MISSED' THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE 'BEAUTIFUL MAPS,' THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!).' 'BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM — YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR — THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR 'MAGA,'' he added. 'THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!' Sports reporter Emily Bicks wrote on Threads: 'Gavin Christopher Newsom keepin the no f***s energy comin.' Liberal social media commentator, Harry Sisson, wrote: 'I absolutely love how Gavin Newsom is treating Donald Trump with the disdain and disrespect that he absolutely deserves.' Journalist Karly Kingsley added: 'I don't think we're giving Gavin Newsom enough credit for what he's doing to defend democracy and to stop a wannabe dictator from consolidating power.' Attorney and Never Trump-er George Conway joined the presidential mockery, writing in response to Newsom: 'Many people, big strong men with tears in their eyes, will soon be saying, 'Sir, you have the most Amazing State, with the Most Beautiful Maps. No one has ever seen anything like this. Your Excellency, Sir, we are in awe of your Incomparable Gubernatorialicityness'.' But not all were on board with Newsom's style change. The Chief Strategy and Public Affairs Officer at Future Caucus, an organization for young lawmakers, Reed Howard, wrote: 'Race-to-the-bottom politics is a darn shame. America deserves better than this. I want real leadership.' Reporter Alex Gault added: 'If this becomes a lasting approach to political communications, I will be committing myself to whatever mental hospital still does lobotomies.' Last month, Trump asked Texas to redraw its maps to hand Republicans another five House seats in the state. Texas Democrats left the state to deny Republicans the ability to move forward with their proposal. Democrats then said they would look to redraw maps in blue states such as Illinois, California, and New York, prompting Republicans to consider taking action in Ohio and Indiana. California has an independent commission that draws political maps, and if Newsom moves ahead with his threat, he would need passage of a special ballot in November.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Colombians bid farewell to presidential hopeful Uribe after shooting at political rally
APTOPIX Colombia Politics Shooting BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombians on Wednesday bid farewell to senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay, who died more than two months after being shot during a political rally in the South American country's capital. Family, friends, members of Congress and a delegation of government officials from the United States honored Uribe, whose coffin was draped with Colombia's flag. The 39-year-old died Monday in the hospital where he had been since the June 7 shooting. Thousands of mourners paid their respects Tuesday. 'The bullets that took his life not only broke the hearts of his family, they reopened the fractures of a country that has yet to find peace,' Senate President Lidio García said, referring to Colombia's long history of violence against politicians. Uribe had become one of the strongest critics of Colombia's current government. In October, he joined the list of politicians seeking to replace Gustavo Petro, the first leftist to govern Colombia, in the May 2026 elections. Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez on Wednesday said on social media that they would not attend Uribe's funeral out of respect for his family's wishes. 'We are not going not because we do not want to, we simply respect the family and avoid that the funeral of Senator Miguel Uribe is taken over by supporters of hate,' Petro posted on X. Uribe was shot three times, twice in the head, while giving a campaign speech in a park in a working-class Bogota neighborhood. Authorities have arrested six people, including the teenager they say shot him, but they have not determined who ordered the attack or why. The shooting, caught on multiple videos, alarmed Colombians who have not seen this kind of political violence against presidential candidates since Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar declared war on the state in the 1990s. Uribe's mother, well-known journalist Diana Turbay, was among the victims in that period. She died during a police rescue after being kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers led by Escobar seeking to block their extradition to the U.S. 'If my mother was willing to give her life for a cause, how could I not do the same in life and in politics?' Uribe, who was 5 when his mother was killed, said in an interview with a Colombian news outlet last year. The senator's family said he would be buried Wednesday at Bogota's Central Cemetery. The cemetery is the oldest in the city and the final resting place of figures such as Liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán, who was shot dead in 1989 while giving a presidential campaign speech in Bogota.
San Francisco Chronicle
24 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Colombians bid farewell to presidential hopeful Uribe after shooting at political rally
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombians on Wednesday bid farewell to senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay, who died more than two months after being shot during a political rally in the South American country's capital. Family, friends, members of Congress and a delegation of government officials from the United States honored Uribe, whose coffin was draped with Colombia's flag. The 39-year-old died Monday in the hospital where he had been since the June 7 shooting. Thousands of mourners paid their respects Tuesday. 'The bullets that took his life not only broke the hearts of his family, they reopened the fractures of a country that has yet to find peace,' Senate President Lidio García said, referring to Colombia's long history of violence against politicians. Uribe had become one of the strongest critics of Colombia's current government. In October, he joined the list of politicians seeking to replace Gustavo Petro, the first leftist to govern Colombia, in the May 2026 elections. Uribe was shot three times, twice in the head, while giving a campaign speech in a park in a working-class Bogota neighborhood. Authorities have arrested six people, including the teenager they say shot him, but they have not determined who ordered the attack or why. The shooting, caught on multiple videos, alarmed Colombians who have not seen this kind of political violence against presidential candidates since Medellin drug lord Pablo Escobar declared war on the state in the 1990s. Uribe's mother, well-known journalist Diana Turbay, was among the victims in that period. She died during a police rescue after being kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers led by Escobar seeking to block their extradition to the U.S. 'If my mother was willing to give her life for a cause, how could I not do the same in life and in politics?' Uribe, who was 5 when his mother was killed, said in an interview with a Colombian news outlet last year. The senator's family said he would be buried Wednesday at Bogota's Central Cemetery. The cemetery is the oldest in the city and the final resting place of figures such as Liberal leader Luis Carlos Galán, who was shot dead in 1989 while giving a presidential campaign speech in Bogota.
