Former President Joe Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, admitted to congressional investigators this week that Biden’s memory had deteriorated and he needed constant hand-holding in the final years of his administration, according to multiple reports.
Zients, one of the highest-ranking aides to speak openly about Biden’s decline, spent roughly six hours behind closed doors on Thursday with the GOP-led House Oversight Committee, according to CNN. His account added new details to the long-running investigation into Biden’s fitness for office and his controversial use of the autopen for last-minute pardons.
The former chief of staff testified that after Biden’s devastating June 2024 debate with President Donald Trump, he suggested to White House physician Kevin O’Connor that Biden needed a comprehensive medical workup, including a cognitive exam, a source familiar with the matter told the New York Post. Publicly, however, then-White House staffers dismissed Biden’s poor debate performance as the result of a “cold.”
Zients told investigators that Biden’s well-known struggles with remembering names and dates grew noticeably worse over time, and decisions that had once required three meetings eventually grew to four, according to the New York Post.
The former chief of staff also revealed that the former president’s son, Hunter Biden, was involved in discussions about presidential pardons near the end of Biden’s term, attending meetings on some of the most controversial decisions, Axios reported.
During his four years in the White House, Biden granted 4,245 acts of clemency, more than any previous president on record, according to the Pew Research Center. All of Biden’s pardons from December to January — including those for family members, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley — were reportedly signed by autopen, except for the preemptive pardon for Hunter.
Zients also testified that Jill Biden intervened to manage her husband’s schedule, asking him to ensure he returned to the residence earlier in the evening and to avoid overloading him with meetings, according to the outlet. Former Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini also discussed limiting Biden’s workload and reducing the distance he needed to walk, even recommending cutting down on the use of stairs, the outlet reported.
The former chief of staff’s testimony capped off the Oversight Committee’s interviews with former Biden officials as part of its investigation into the previous administration’s potential cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline.
Earlier witnesses, including ex-spokesmen Ian Sams and Andrew Bates, admitted they rarely met with Biden personally and instead relied on senior aides to vouch for his fitness. Former press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who has since left the Democratic Party and announced a tell-all book on the Biden administration, also testified.
Several others — including Jill Biden’s top aide, Anthony Bernal, and O’Connor, Biden’s personal physician — invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than answer questions about the former president’s condition.
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