Former Biden officials face questions on ex-president’s cognitive capacity

The House Oversight Committee is hearing from two top former Biden administration aides this week as Republicans continue to probe allegations that ex-President Joe Biden‘s top lieutenants covered up the former leader’s mental decline while in office.

Former Domestic Policy Council Director Neera Tanden will meet with the committee on Tuesday, and former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the First Lady Anthony Bernthal will meet with the committee on Thursday. 

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President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy during a speech at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 13. (AP/Susan Walsh)

The committee also has interviews scheduled with former administration officials Annie Tomasini and Ashley Williams, while seeking interviews with several officials in the Biden inner circle, including former Chief of Staff Ron Klain and former Senior Advisor to the President for Communications Anita Dunn. 

Biden’s former doctor, Kevin O’Connor, will sit down with House investigators in July.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is probing whether those closest to Biden in his White House knowingly colluded to hide the former president’s declining mental acuity and used methods to circumvent the former president when it came to the issuance of important orders.

HOUSE GOP SECURES FOUR KEY WITNESSES IN BIDEN MENTAL-DECLINE PROBE AS FORMER AIDES AGREE TO TALK

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., right, is demanding three high-ranking staffers in former President Joe Biden’s White House appear for transcribed interviews on their suspected roles working “behind the scenes” to “cover-up” the former president’s significant mental decline during his term. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File and Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump also ordered the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the matter. The president directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House counsel David Warrington to handle the investigation.

In response to the Trump administration’s call for an investigation, Biden declared he was the only one who “made the decisions” during his presidency and called Trump’s efforts a “distraction.”

Among the questions House investigators are expected to have is whether any Biden officials used the autopen to authorize executive actions without the president’s permission. 

The sit-downs are behind closed doors, as opposed to public congressional hearings.

The interviews will be transcribed and likely released at a later date.

The House Oversight Committee is hearing from two top former Biden administration aides this week as Republicans continue to probe allegations that former President Joe Biden’s top lieutenants covered up the former leader’s mental decline while in office. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Care Can’t Wait Action)

Comer previously told Fox News Digital that the more muted setting of a closed-door interview would allow House lawmakers to get more key information, as opposed to the public spectacle of a hearing.

“I’ve studied history, there’s never been a committee hearing that did what it’s supposed to do,” Comer said.

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“But these depositions and interviews, do. You’ve got one hour, you’re not interrupted, you don’t have to go five minutes back and forth. So to extract information, we’re going to go with the interviews. We could have a hearing later on, but right now, I think we can get more done quicker with interviews.”