Senior Staff Who Directed Autopen Had Little Access To President Biden

Senior aides to Joe Biden insist that while president he remained fit to govern and mentally capable during the final years of his single term. But their congressional interviews paint a picture of a siloed White House and often show key staff members had minimal interactions with the chief executive.

Those closest to the former president, now 82, on a daily basis reported he became “less energetic” during his final year in office, while those responsible for the White House’s public messaging continued to insist concerns about Biden’s mental acuity were baseless.

Additional witnesses have been less forthcoming about their work in the White House. The former president’s personal physician and first lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff each invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination under questioning by the GOP-led House Oversight Committee.

Oversight Chairman James Comer, whose committee is leading the probe into an alleged coverup of the former president’s mental decline, has vowed to continue the investigation. He said the recent transcribed interviews of former senior staff continue to raise “serious questions about who is truly calling the shots” in Biden’s White House.

Comer believes that evidence gathered so far in the probe could be used to challenge some of Biden’s pardons or executive orders because his senior staff have failed to prove the former president knew what he was signing. The committee has zeroed in on Biden’s use of an autopen to sign clemency acts and some executive orders over concerns that he may not have approved them.