Joe Biden’s former chief of staff has testified to Congress about the Democratic president’s memory struggles in the final years of his presidency, a new report reveals.
Jeff Zients told the House Oversight Committee in a closed hearing on Thursday that Biden had difficulty remembering names and dates in his final years in the White House, Axios reports, citing people familiar with his remarks.
Zients reportedly acknowledged that Biden had always struggled with faces and dates, but that it got worse as his presidency went on. He also noted that Biden would often request more meetings to make decisions on issues as he finished his term, according to Axios.
The ex-chief of staff went on to say that former First Lady Jill Biden urged him to adjust the president’s schedule to ensure he could get more rest, Axios reports. Zients reportedly said that fellow aide Annie Tomasini also requested that he limit Biden’s schedule and shorten the distances the president had to walk.
Zients said the president’s son, Hunter Biden, was present for discussions about his father’s presidential pardons, according to the report. As he prepared to leave office, Biden issued pardons to members of his family and political allies who had been the targets of attacks by President Donald Trump.
The group included Hunter, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and lawmakers who served on the House committee that investigated the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Zients’ testimony comes as lawmakers investigate whether “Biden’s cognitive decline was covered up by his inner circle,” and if critical decisions were made on his behalf using an autopen, according to the committee’s website.
The Independent has contacted Zients and Biden’s office for comment.
Earlier this year, leaked audio of Biden’s 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur revealed the extent to which the then-80-year-old president struggled to remember key details and dates.
The audio, published by Axios, included a moment when Biden’s attorneys had to remind him of the year his son Beau died and the year that Trump was first elected president.
While the transcripts were already public at the time, the audio also revealed that Biden spoke in a halting, whispering voice, punctuated by long silences.
In her forthcoming memoir, former Vice President Kamala Harris has also unveiled new details about her relationship with Biden after he dropped from the race and endorsed her as the Democratic nominee.
In one anecdote, Harris recounted that Biden called her — moments before she walked on stage to debate Trump — to ask if she’d been badmouthing him to Democratic donors. She said the moment threw her off balance at a critical point in her bid for the White House.
Harris also slammed Biden’s decision to stay in the 2024 presidential race for as long as he did.
“‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris wrote, in an excerpt published by The Atlantic.
“Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision,” she continued.
Harris’s memoir, 107 Days, will be released on Tuesday.
