Leaked audio from former President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur in October 2023 about his mishandling of classified documents made it clear that Biden was utterly unfit to execute his duties as commander in chief.
As we all heard for ourselves, Biden struggled to recall key facts — the date of his son’s death, Trump’s 2017 inauguration, even when he left office as vice president. He couldn’t explain how or why classified documents ended up in his home. His responses were riddled with long pauses as he rummaged through his clouded memory for answers. And as the world would witness just eight months later during his disastrous debate with President Donald Trump, the interview offered a stark preview of just how far his cognitive decline had progressed, and why his continued presence in the Oval Office posed a serious risk.
The question is no longer, “Was Biden unfit for office?” The real question is: why was he allowed to remain there?
Some claim to be stunned by Biden’s jaw-dropping performance in the Hur interview. But in reality, it was anything but shocking. Many of us recognized — and reported on — the subtler, yet unmistakable, signs of cognitive decline from the moment he launched his campaign in April 2019. And we watched that decline accelerate over the next six years.
After the pivotal June 2024 debate, denial was no longer an option. His subsequent withdrawal from the race — and the understanding that he would soon leave office — brought a measure of relief. Still, the fact that a man in such obvious decline held the most powerful position in the United States for so long remains deeply troubling.
The leaked audio has brought all that shock roaring back into focus — and exposed as lies the claims from administration insiders who insisted they saw no signs of the former president’s decline.
Released in the wake of a wave of tell-all books detailing Biden’s condition — and how those closest to him worked to hide it from the public — the audio has Democrats now saying it’s time to move forward.
But Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, isn’t ready to let it go. After listening to the leaked audio Friday night, Comer announced he would be calling in senior Biden administration officials for transcribed interviews.
According to Comer’s post on X, the first four former officials to be questioned will be Director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, senior advisor to First Lady Jill Biden Anthony Bernal, and Deputy Assistant to the President (and senior advisor) Ashley Williams.
Spinning for CNN is one thing — lying to Congress is another matter entirely.
Now that it’s clear Biden was incapable of carrying out his duties, the obvious question is: who was actually running the country? Just as pressing: who had access to the Biden autopens that have drawn headlines in recent months? And why did no one invoke the 25th Amendment when it became undeniable that he was no longer fit to serve?
In a review of the forthcoming Biden administration exposé Original Sin, authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, The Atlantic’s Tyler Austin Harper highlights a striking claim: an unnamed source, described only as “a political insider,” tells the authors, “Five people were running the country. And Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Although it’s unclear whether those five individuals are specifically identified in the book — which is set to be released Tuesday — Harper notes that “they are not clearly named in the public summary.” Still, it’s unlikely House investigators will have much difficulty identifying them, or questioning why they may have violated the solemn oath they took to support and defend the Constitution.
Harper also cites a passage in which an anonymous aide confides to the authors: “We attempted to shield him from his own staff, so many people didn’t realize the extent of the decline beginning in 2023.” He concludes that the book “leaves little doubt that his enablers, at least, understood what they were doing.”
While Tapper and Thompson likely had not intended it, Original Sin could end up serving as a roadmap for congressional investigators. Perhaps negotiations for a movie deal should wait — unless they’re ready to make a lot of enemies first.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on LinkedIn or X.
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