Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday if President Donald Trump believes former first lady Jill Biden should be called to testify on her husband’s decline.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer subpoenaed former President Joe Biden’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, and several former White House officials to testify before Congress on the White House’s handling of Biden’s health. In response to Doocy’s question, Leavitt stated that Jill Biden was evidently “complicit” in covering up her husband’s health problems and should be called to testify.
“There’s some folks in President Biden’s inner circle who are now in talks with Republicans in Congress to give interviews on how they may have handled Biden’s decline. Is the president satisfied with aides only sitting for these transcribed interviews or would he like to see some kind of testimony from the former first lady, Dr. Biden?” Doocy asked.
“I think, frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw [regarding] her husband and when she saw it and what she knew,” Leavitt said. “Because I think anybody looking again at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with your own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see this was a clear coverup and Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that coverup. There’s documentation video evidence of her clearly shielding her husband away from the cameras, they were just on ‘The View’ last week, she was saying everything was fine. She’s still lying to the American people, she still thinks the American public [is] so stupid that they’re going to believe her lies and frankly, it’s insulting and she needs to answer for it.”
WATCH:
White House aides, staff and Democrat lawmakers all witnessed Biden’s physical and mental decline but attempted to hide it from the public in order to help him successfully run for reelection in 2024, according to “Original Sin,” a book written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson. His aides often escorted Biden away from public events without taking questions from the press, handed him notecards instructing him what to do at events and shielded him from holding press conferences.
After Biden had suffered yet another fall in June 2023, O’Connor warned his aides that the then-president would have to be placed in a wheelchair if he fell again, which panicked his aides as they worried about the bad optics that would have ahead of the election, according to Tapper and Thompson’s book. They took extra precautions at public events to ensure that Biden did not fall again.
His staff also attempted to credit Biden’s halting walk to fractures he suffered after a fall in November 2020, which contradicted O’Connor, who said that the fractures in Biden’s foot had completely healed, according to “Original Sin.”
The former first lady brushed off concerns about Biden’s cognitive health during a May 8 appearance on “The View,” where she argued that her husband “worked really hard” and was a “great president.” During the segment, she had to chime in for Biden as he trailed off while trying to answer a question about his mental health.
In the letter to O’Connor, Comer cited his February 2024 assessment stating that Biden was “robust” and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.” He also sent letters to former White House officials Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini and Ashley Williams to testify before the committee.
Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said he will launch an investigation on the Senate side into the White House’s handling of Biden’s health, Axios first reported on May 21.
More questions have circulated about Biden’s health when his personal office announced that he is suffering from an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. Oncologists and medical professionals have said that Biden likely had cancer while president.
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