A 10th former Joe Biden White House staffer took questions from House investigators on Thursday, insisting that the 46th president was up to the job.
Anita Dunn, former senior adviser to the president for communications, has been closely linked to Biden for years.
Dunn and others voluntarily spoke to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday.
The Hill obtained a copy of her opening statement to the committee, in which she strongly defended Biden’s ability to do the job despite widespread public concern about his cognitive decline.
“From what I experienced and observed in the White House, President Biden made all of the important decisions expected of someone serving as the president of the United States,” Dunn told the oversight panel. “As is typical and necessary for that role, President Biden relied on senior advisers to execute his priorities and manage the day-to-day operations that allow the White House to run effectively, but his authority and involvement in decision-making was clear.”
She declined to answer questions from reporters after the testimony.
Her assessment was more generous than some other Biden staffers. Biden’s first White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, told the committee that Biden was less energetic and his memory became worse during his presidency.
The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., is probing Biden’s apparent cognitive decline in the White House as well as whether he was aware of major presidential actions taken on his behalf—such as presidential pardons—using the White House autopen.
Though close to Biden, Dunn was not part of Biden’s “politburo,” according to the book “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by reporters Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper. The politburo was a group that sought to hide Biden’s cognitive decline, according to the book.
Dunn and others voluntarily responded to requests to go before the committee for a private transcribed interview. However, former White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and Anthony Bernal, a former adviser to first lady Jill Biden, invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination.
