By Michelle L. Price and Matt Brown, Associated Press
Washington (AP) In testimony to senators on Wednesday, a longtime close adviser to President Joe Biden criticized Republican probes into the former president as unfounded and defended Biden as capable of doing his presidential duties at all times.
In his opening statement to the House Oversight Committee, Steve Ricchetti, a senior advisor to Biden during his presidency, stated that he was prepared to respond to questions from lawmakers regarding Biden’s mental health while in office, even in the face of Republican attempts to intimidate former administration officials.
Ricchetti stated, “I think it’s critical to firmly refute this misleading narrative regarding the Biden presidency and our role in it.”
Ricchetti, who has been Biden’s adviser since 2012, wrote that there was no evil plot of any type among the president’s senior staff, and there was definitely no plot to conceal the president’s mental illness from the American people. He claimed that Biden was more than capable of performing his duties for the duration of his term.
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In an effort to shift the focus back to the previous administration, House Republicans are focusing their oversight agenda on building their investigation, and Ricchetti’s testimony follows weeks of appearances by former Biden officials.
Some former employees, such as Anthony Bernal, a senior advisor to former first lady Jill Biden, and Biden’s doctor, Kevin O. Connor, cited their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to respond to the committee’s questions. Others have provided lengthy responses to the committee’s queries, such as Neera Tanden, the former director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Ron Klain, the former chief of staff of the White House.
In the upcoming weeks, seven additional senior Biden officials will testify before the committee.
The Trump administration has started looking into Biden on its own. Trump ordered an investigation into whether certain individuals conspired to mislead the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the president’s powers and responsibilities in June, citing clear indications that Biden lacked the capacity to exercise his presidential authority.
According to Ricchetti, the Republican-led investigations were a clear attempt to divert attention away from the turmoil of the first half of this government. He compared it with Biden’s achievements on climate policy, inflation, infrastructure, and the response to the coronavirus.
Throughout my four years in the White House, I am convinced that President Biden was always carrying out his constitutional obligations. Did he make a mistake? Sometimes. Make errors? Wake up in the wrong position? We all did what he did. However, Ricchetti stated, “I always felt every day that he had the ability, moral fiber, and discernment to be President of the United States.”
A legal battle over the Biden White House’s use of the autopen, a tool used in every presidential administration to obtain the president’s signature on laws and executive orders, lies at the center of the Republican investigation. Without providing any proof, congressional Republicans and the Trump administration claim that Biden was not in a coherent state of mind for a large portion of his presidency and that many of the policies he implemented may be unlawful as a result.
Biden claims that he made all of the choices involving an autopen while in office and has labeled Trump and House Republicans liars for the assertion. Biden’s aides are now telling the committee exactly that.
Republicans continue to be keen to use Biden’s numerous blunders as a political weapon against Democrats.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats have mainly written off the House Republicans’ investigation as a diversion from the goals of the Trump administration. After leaving the deposition for Anthony Bernal, the former chief of staff to Jill Biden, Texas Democrat Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is a member of the House Oversight Committee, said Republicans in the investigation appear to be losers.
