House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer dramatically escalated his push to investigate an alleged cover-up of Joe Biden’s mental decline while president, as he demanded testimony from four top ex-Biden aides, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
In a flurry of letters sent out Friday, Comer ordered Jean-Pierre, former chief of staff Jeff Zients, former deputy press secretary Andrew Bates and former special assistant to the president Ian Sams to appear for transcribed interviews before the Oversight Committee, Fox News Digital reported Friday.
Comer accused the group that includes four of Biden’s closest former aides of possibly shielding the public from what he alleged is the president’s cognitive decline, and of carrying out executive actions on Biden’s behalf without his consent.
“You were not only near the president daily, but you were ‘alongside the ranks of the president’s top confidantes,'” Comer wrote to Jean Pierre. The Kentucky Republican also slammed the ex-White House press secretary’s public denials of Biden’s health rumors as “cheap fakes” and “misinformation” that he warned, “cannot go without investigation.”
“Comer set interview dates in late August and early September and gave the four senior officials until July 4 to confirm they would comply with the demands voluntarily or if they will “require a subpoena to compel your attendance for a deposition,'” according to Fox News Digital. He previously subpoenaed Biden’s physician and another aide after they refused to testify, the outlet noted.
“As part of our aggressive investigation into the cover-up of his cognitive decline and potentially unauthorized executive actions, we must hear from those who aided and abetted this farce,” Comer said in a statement. “President Biden’s inner circle repeatedly told the American people that he was ‘sharp as ever,’ dismissing any commentary about his obvious mental decline as ‘gratuitous,'” he said. “They fed these false talking points to progressive allies and the media, who helped perpetuate that President Biden was fit to serve.”
