The House Oversight and Accountability Committee plans to hold hearings investigating what lawmakers describe as a possible cover-up surrounding former President Biden’s cognitive condition and his use of an autopen during his final months in office. This comes after audio surfaced of Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur, revealing moments of confusion and memory lapses.
Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the committee, said Friday on Fox News’s “Hannity” that the leaked recording confirms longstanding concerns about Biden’s mental acuity. “Clearly, from that interview, which was many, many months prior to the heavy use of the autopen, Joe Biden wasn’t capable of making decisions. He wasn’t coherent,” Comer stated.
Although a transcript of the two-day interview had already been released, the White House had blocked efforts by the Justice Department to make the audio publicly available. Hur ultimately declined to press charges related to Biden’s handling of classified documents, citing Biden’s poor memory and describing him as a “well-meaning, elderly man.”
The full audio, leaked this week by Axios, painted a more vivid picture of Biden’s pauses and struggles to recall basic details.
Comer said Friday that his committee would resume examining Biden’s mental fitness, especially in connection with the widespread use of autopen to authorize dozens of executive actions. These included high-profile decisions like issuing pardons to individuals aligned with former President Trump. Comer questioned whether Biden had the cognitive ability to personally authorize those orders.
“There are serious concerns that President Biden lacked the mental capacity to authorize those actions,” Comer said during the segment hosted by former Congressman Jason Chaffetz. “The American people are done being lied to.”
He added that the committee would begin issuing notices next week to individuals suspected of being involved in withholding the truth from the public. “We’re going to bring the truth into the light,” Comer said.