Earlier this week, House Republicans subpoenaed three top White House aides in hopes of gaining more insight into the scheme to hide President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline from the public. Their testimony could be the start of a more extensive effort by congressional Republicans – perhaps even with some support from Democrats – to expose the lengths to which Biden’s inner circle went to deceive the American people about the president’s condition.
The three aides who will start the initial round of testimony on Biden’s health are White House Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, First Lady Jill Biden’s senior adviser Anthony Bernal, and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley Williams. According to Axios, the trio is primarily responsible for forming a “protective bubble” around the president.
“The White House has shielded 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,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a press release. “President Biden is clearly unfit for office, yet his staff are trying to hide the truth from the American people. Key White House staff must come before our committee so we can provide the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve.”
Comer has also indicated that the committee will subpoena Biden’s White House doctor if he does not comply with a voluntary interview request.
Comer’s statement reflects the frustration of many Americans – particularly Democrat voters – following Biden’s debate debacle late last month. Though Biden’s health has been a major question mark going all the way back to his 2020 campaign, his shockingly poor performance on stage with former President Donald Trump has erased all remaining doubt about his cognitive decline.
Following the debate, fresh details have emerged about the extent to which Biden is “stage managed” by his staff, including confirmation that he has a list of reporters to call on before his rare press conferences and that cabinet meetings are essentially scripted performances – when they happen at all. One Cabinet secretary told CNN they are “uncertain of Biden’s condition because they so rarely see him.”
Americans rightly feel lied to about Biden’s condition – a scandal that likely extends not just to the president’s aides but also elected Democrats and the mainstream media. Former Trump advisor Stephen Miller has termed the cover-up the “Biden cognition hoax,” alleging that, “Anybody who’s anybody in the Democratic Party participated in, knew of, and covered up Biden’s cognitive dysfunction while allowing secret unnamed staffers to run the country.”
Now, with the public demanding answers, congressional Republicans appear to have all the political momentum they need to use their investigatory and subpoena powers to expose the details of this scandal and hold the perpetrators accountable – a list of co-conspirators that likely extends to the very highest ranks of Democrat leadership.
That list starts with Vice President Kamala Harris, who has repeatedly insisted that Biden is in excellent health. “Our president is in good shape, and is ready to lead in our second term,” she said as recently as this past February. As someone who works with and around Biden every day, Harris has had a front-row seat for four years to the president’s cognitive collapse, which was likely already in progress even before the 2020 election.
Congressional Democrats, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have also assured Americans over the last four years that Biden is “sharp as a tack” and has a strong understanding of complex issues.
Of course, some of these same Democrats are now feigning shock and outrage at supposedly discovering for the first time that the President of the United States is senile. “We kind of just feel lied to” about the president’s condition, one Democrat senator told Punchbowl News. “They’ve been shielding him from those types of settings for months and even after it became undeniable, they’re still lying to us. There’s just a lot of frustration right now in the caucus.”
We shouldn’t forget here that Democrats are only raising these concerns after the debate, rather than voicing them publicly in the months leading up to it where Biden was supposedly missing in action. Much of this outrage is undoubtedly performative to distract from their own complicity in covering for an ailing Biden in the hopes of saving their own political skins this November.
Nonetheless, as more and more Democrats publicly call on Biden to exit the race (even if it is just a matter of self-preservation) there may be an emerging bipartisan majority ready to ask tough questions of Biden’s team and begin to reveal the fraud that was perpetrated on the American people.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
