A top White House official and campaign chief for former President Joe Biden took probing questions from House investigators on Wednesday, pushing back strongly against assertions of Biden’s cognitive decline while still in office.
Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president in the Biden White House and a longtime player in Democrat politics, sat down with members and staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Mike Donilon, a former senior White House adviser to Biden, is set to take questions from House investigators Thursday. Donilon was Biden’s campaign manager in 2020.
Ricchetti and Donilon were both identified in the book “Original Sin,” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, as part of the “Politburo” that helped run the White House during Biden’s cognitive decline.
Ricchetti contended that Biden is capable of being president today, and that he could have won in 2024, according to a source familiar with the interview. Ricchetti was combative and defensive during the transcribed interview and often filibustered. Ricchetti’s lawyer repeatedly interrupted and requested questions to be rephrased, according to the source.
He said famed film director Steven Spielberg helped Biden prepare for the June 2024 debate that led to the Democratic Party pressuring him to drop out of the race.
Ricchetti said Biden made only “common mistakes” that have not increased since Biden was vice president.
Axios reported that in his opening statement, Ricchetti defended Biden’s mental capacity.
“The Trump administration’s efforts to taint President Biden’s legacy with baseless assertions about President Biden’s mental health are an obvious attempt to deflect from the chaos of this administration’s first six months,” Ricchetti reportedly said.
He later added: “Let me be clear: At all times during his presidency, I believed that President Biden was fully capable of exercising his presidential duties and responsibilities, and that he did so. Neither I, nor anyone else, usurped President Biden’s constitutional duties, which he faithfully and fully carried out each and every day.”
Ricchetti worked with Biden during his vice presidency during the Obama administration.
The committee is probing Biden’s cognitive state during single term as president, as well as whether his staff signed presidential orders without his knowledge.
Democrats did not use their full allotted time, and repeatedly raised concerns about whether President Donald Trump had a colonoscopy, according to the source.
Just last week, Biden’s first White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, voluntarily took questions from the committee. Two other former aides—Neera Tanden and Ashley Williams—also sat with the House investigators for a transcribed interview.
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