House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) is compelling former President Joe Biden’s personal physician and longtime confidante to testify about Biden’s mental decline and the previous administration’s effort to cover it up.
Comer is sending a subpoena to Dr. Kevin O’Connor to appear for a closed-door interview later this month as part of his investigation into Biden’s mental decline and the possibility that Biden’s autopen was used to carry out sweeping, last-ditch presidential actions.
“Given your connections with the Biden family, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people,” Comer said in a letter attached to the subpoena.
The subpoena comes after Comer made a request for O’Connor to sit before the Oversight Committee voluntarily. O’Connor rejected the committee’s request for ethical and legal reasons, arguments that Comer disputed in his subpoena letter.
“You refused the Committee’s request. However, to advance the Committee’s oversight and legislative responsibilities and interests, your testimony is critical.”
O’Connor is a former Biden family business associate and a longtime confidant of Joe Biden dating back to his vice presidency. He conducted the former president’s annual physical, including a 2024 examination declaring Biden a “healthy, active, robust 81- year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.”
Biden’s struggles with mental fitness eventually tanked his political career following his disastrous June 2024 debate performance and the Democratic Party revolt it caused. Throughout his presidency, Biden’s mental slipups were apparent in his speeches and public appearances, leading the vast majority of Americans to have concerns about his advanced age.
Special counsel Robert Hur observed Biden’s memory struggles in his February 2024 report detailing his investigation into Biden’s potential mishandling of classified documents. Biden’s mental state played a role in Hur’s decision to not pursue charges against the sitting president.
With Biden’s recent prostate cancer diagnosis, O’Connor’s handling of Biden’s health has received further scrutiny because of the aggressive state of Biden’s illness. Biden has spoken about his illness with a resilient tone and dismissed speculation about his not being in control of his presidency.
The bombshell book Original Sin by Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN anchor Jake Tapper has generated further discussions of Biden’s worsening mental state and the extent to which his aides hid it from the American people. The New York Times bestseller has become one of the most heavily discussed political books in years, and it identifies a group of Biden aides as a “politburo” who effectively ran the country because of Biden’s condition.
Comer sent requests Wednesday to members of Biden’s “politburo” to voluntarily appear before the Oversight Committee for his investigation. The top Biden aides have all faced significant public scrutiny because of the details in Original Sin and the Democratic party’s electoral failures in 2024.