Another one of former President Joe Biden's top aides testified Friday in front of the House Oversight Committee about the apparent cover-up of his mental decline while in office, the New York Post reported. Ashley Williams, deputy director of Oval Office operations under Biden, is the third person in his close orbit to do so.
House Republicans are demanding answers about Biden's waning days in his administration, when he was granting pardons and issuing executive orders. They were signed mainly by an autopen, which calls into question their validity in light of his slipping condition.
Williams was questioned in a closed-door session that lasted nearly six hours about what she knew. Before the session, she was stripped of executive privilege, which compelled her to provide "unrestricted testimony" about Biden's mental acuity.
Afterwards, the former aide declined to give remarks to the press about what was said. "She’s cooperating, otherwise we would’ve been done," Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said of Williams' testimony.
The fact that Biden was in cognitive decline was obvious to anyone observing him during his presidency. However, it seems the people closest to him did what they could to obscure that fact the entire time.
Now that the dust has settled and Biden and the Democrats lost the 2024 election, the truth is coming to light. Sometimes, it comes in the form of what the people around him are not willing to say.
Earlier this week, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, who was the White House physician under Biden, asserted his Fifth Amendment right when answering the committee's questions. The message of this move to prevent self-incrimination is that perhaps there was something he knew about the president at the time, but wasn't saying.
Of course, O'Connor had much that could fall under doctor-patient privacy. Instead, these inquiries from Comer included questions such as "Were you ever told to lie about the president’s health?" and "Did you ever believe President Biden was unfit to execute his duties?"
All that O'Connor would offer to the committee was his name and a prepared statement. "I am not a lawyer, and I must follow my lawyer’s advice in this matter," O'Connor told the lawmakers.
The attorney who advised O'Connor was none other than David Schertler, who advised former National Institutes of Health head Dr. Anthony Fauci when he was being grilled about the origins of COVID-19 by a congressional committee. Comer thinks this is more than a coincidence.
"This is unprecedented, and I think that this adds more fuel to the fire that there was a cover-up. It’s clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment," Comer said following O'Connor's testimony.
As for other witnesses, former Biden aide Neera Tanden appeared before the committee on June 24. After a five-hour interview with the Oversight Committee without executive privilege to hide behind, Tanden still maintained there was "absolutely not" a conspiracy to cover up Biden's mental decline.
It remains to be seen as other witnesses will come before the Oversight Committee next week. On Wednesday, the committee will hear from Anthony Bernal, a top aide for then-first lady Jill Biden, whom she referred to as her "work husband," who will have to testify or plead the fifth because he was deposed.
The issue isn't so much that Biden was incapacitated as it is that people around him were potentially willing to cover it up. Something this important and extensive is almost impossible to keep quiet, and it looks like the lid may soon be blown off after all.
