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House Oversight Committee Probes Biden’s Cognitive State, Subpoenas Top Aides

Chairman Comer Says White House Staffers 'have taken it upon themselves to run the country while the President cannot'

Published: July 11, 2024
  |   By Adrian Norman
House Oversight Committee Probes Biden’s Cognitive State, Subpoenas Top Aides

The House Oversight Committee has issued subpoenas to three senior White House staff members, alleging they are effectively managing President Joe Biden’s duties due to his cognitive decline.


This move comes in the wake of Biden’s recent debate performance, which drew widespread criticism over lapses in his mental acuity.


Since then, members of both major political parties have called on him to end his candidacy in the 2024 election as questions swirl around his fitness for office.


The subpoenas, delivered two weeks after the debated event, target Annie Tomasini, Deputy Chief of Staff; Anthony Bernal, Senior Advisor to First Lady Jill Biden; and Ashley Williams, Special Assistant to the President.


“According to one former Biden aide, these three employees have created ‘a protective bubble around’ President Biden, and he is ‘staffed so closely that he’s lost all independence,’” the committee said in a statement posted to X.


“President Biden is clearly unfit for office, yet his staff are trying to hide the truth from the American people,” the statement continued. “Key White House staff must come before our committee so we can provide the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve.”



In the letters to each official, the committee expresses concern over reports that Biden may not be the person actually “carrying out the duties of his office” and may not be “capable of doing so.”


The committee’s chairman, Representative James Comer (R-Ky.), articulated concerns in letters to the officials, asserting each is “one of several White House staffers who have taken it upon themselves to run the country while the President cannot."


“The White House has shielded these three key aides from testifying about President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, and now we’ve learned through reporting these same aides are also seeking to cover up President Biden’s declining cognitive state inside the White House,” Comer said in a statement posted to X.



White House spokesperson Ian Sams condemned Comer and called the subpoeneas a “baseless political stunt intended for him to get media attention instead of engage in legitimate oversight."


Sams added, “His partisan attacks on the president have been discredited, and now he continues to debase the House by weaponizing subpoenas to get headlines instead of seeking information through the proper constitutional process.”


Numerous people within Biden’s orbit are trying to find a way to convince him to step aside amid his cognitive decline.


The committee’s subpoenas come as the Biden campaign quietly commissions polling to gauge how Vice President Kamala Harris stacks up against former President Donald Trump, as they weigh whether Biden should, in fact, drop out of the race.

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