Klain acknowledged that Biden’s memory declined during his presidency but said he thought Biden was still capable of governing.
Former President Joe Biden’s first chief of staff revealed to a congressional panel that Hillary Clinton and Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, approached him ahead of the 2024 election to warn him that they did not believe the incumbent would be politically viable in the 2024 contest against Donald Trump.
Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff from 2021 to 2023, told the panel that Clinton and Sullivan expressed their doubts about Biden’s ability to win the election before the disastrous debate that led to a public reckoning with his diminished state, a source familiar with Klain’s testimony told NR. Sullivan told Klain that Biden was less effective in 2024 than he was in 2022, the source said.
A spokesperson for Sullivan told CNN he did not have a conversation with Klain about Biden running for president prior to Biden’s disastrous 2024 presidential debate. A spokesperson for Clinton did not dispute Klain’s account of events.
Klain believed Biden had the mental sharpness required to serve as president and was not too old to run again. But Klain acknowledged that Biden’s memory worsened over the course of his presidency, particularly when it came to names and proper nouns. Klain also acknowledged Biden became less energetic and more forgetful, but still thought he had the capacity to govern.
Biden’s declining mental acuity ultimately led to his political downfall after Democrats revolted against him following his horrendous debate performance. Klain said Biden appeared tired and ill before the debate, but had no knowledge of him taking ambien.
Biden’s troubled son Hunter revealed on a podcast earlier this week that Joe Biden was using ambien in the days leading up to the debate. The younger Biden did not say specifically when his father took ambien prior to the debate.
Klain testified behind closed doors to the House Oversight Committee Thursday and answered the panel’s questions instead of invoking the Fifth Amendment in the way several other key witnesses have done.
The Oversight Committee is investigating Biden’s mental decline and the efforts his close aides undertook to hide it from the public. The congressional panel is specifically concerned about whether Biden’s aides used the presidential autopen to make decisions without Biden’s knowledge.
According to bombshell book Original Sin, authored by Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, Klain was part of Biden’s “politburo” of senior officials who called the shots in Biden’s White House. Thompson and Tapper’s deeply reported bestseller chronicles Biden’s issues with mental acuity and the lengths his aides went to to prevent the public from finding out about it.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) has scheduled interviews with the other aides who made up the “politburo” and spokespeople, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Former senior aide Neera Tanden is the only other Biden official to deliver closed-door testimony to the panel. Biden’s former physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former first lady Jill Biden’s top lieutenant Anthony Bernal, and another senior Biden official Annie Tomasini have all plead the fifth in recent weeks.
Joe Biden has rejected the premise of the Oversight Committee’s investigation, stating that he made all the decisions during his presidency.
“I made every single one of those. And — including the categories, when we set this up to begin with. And so — but I understand why Trump would think that, because obviously, I guess, he doesn’t focus much. Anyway, so — yes, I made every decision,” he told the New York Times earlier this month.
The Times obtained emails from the National Archives showing Biden made the decision about the criteria for presidential pardons, but did not sign off on every individual to receive clemency.
President Trump has also recommended the Justice Department to investigate whether Biden’s aides conspired to conceal his condition from the public. Comer has not ruled out delivering criminal referrals to the Justice Department if his investigation uncovers evidence of illegal activity.
Comer’s is the highest profile congressional probe into Biden’s worsening mental acuity and how his senior aides handled it.