White House Chief of Staff during the Biden administration, Ron Klain, and several other former senior officials have agreed to testify as part of an investigation into the cognitive health of the former US president, Politico reports.
Earlier, it became known that four other former Biden employees agreed to testify in Congress. After that, the Axios portal, citing sources, reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump deprived Klain and a number of other former White House employees of executive privilege, which allows not only current but also former administration employees not to disclose certain official information.
“The committee has set the following dates for the testimony of former administration officials: former chief of staff Ron Klain – for July 24; former adviser to the president Steve Richetti – for July 30; former senior adviser to the president Mike Donilon – for July 31; former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed – for August 5; and former senior adviser to the president Anita Dunn — on August 7,” the publication reports.
The first expert hearing on Biden’s mental abilities during his presidential term was held on June 18 in the US Senate.
Earlier, the book “Original Sin: The Decline of President Biden, His Cover-Up, and the Disastrous Decision to Run Again” by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson was published. In it, they claim, citing officials from the former administration, that Biden had lost the ability to perform his duties in critical situations by 2024 and used cheat sheets even in closed meetings of his cabinet.
Biden, being the oldest president in US history at the time of leaving office, often gave his political opponents reasons to doubt his cognitive abilities, regularly making slips of the tongue and blunders in public speeches. Republicans used this in the inter-party struggle to question Biden’s ability to effectively govern the country. During his time in office, he repeatedly stumbled and fell, got confused, and had difficulty formulating his thoughts.