WashingtonIn 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 spite of Republicans’ attempts to intimidate officials from the previous administration, Steve Ricchetti, a senior advisor to Biden during his presidency, wrote in his opening statement to the House Oversight Committee that he was prepared to respond to questions from lawmakers regarding Biden’s mental health while in office.
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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.
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 adviser to former first lady Jill Biden, and Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, cited their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to respond to committee questioning. 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 to Biden’s achievements on climate policy, inflation, infrastructure, and the coronavirus response, he said.
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 controversy involving the Biden White House’s use of the autopen, a tool used in all presidential administrations to issue 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. That sentiment is now being expressed directly to the committee by Biden’s staff.
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.
