Former White House spokesman Andrew Bates is appearing on Capitol Hill to face a grilling on the use of an autopen to sign important documents on Joe Biden’s behalf.
Bates is being questioned by congressional investigators on Friday morning as part of the House Oversight Committee’s probe into whether Biden’s inner circle concealed the former president’s mental decline during his final years in office.
He is the 11th former Biden official to testify and the ninth to do so voluntarily.
Bates served in Biden’s communications shop for nearly the entirety of his four-year term and eventually rose to senior deputy press secretary.
Three others, Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini, and former White House physician Kevin O’Connor, were compelled to appear under congressional subpoena.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) has led the inquiry, examining whether senior aides not only misled the public but also allowed Biden’s name to be affixed to executive decisions without his awareness, including a wave of clemency orders signed in the final stretch of his presidency.
In a June letter to Bates, Comer wrote:
“You served as Senior Deputy Press Secretary in the White House during former President Joe Biden’s Administration.
“You also served in communications roles during the 2020 Biden campaign and during the Obama-Biden Administration.
“Other than Karine Jean-Pierre, you were one of the most prominent public-facing defenders of former President Biden’s mental acuity.
“The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation, given the mounting evidence that President Biden was incapacitated for much, if not all, of his single term,” he continued.
Republicans have argued that testimony is essential to determine whether the American people were misled about Biden’s ability to govern, while Democrats have dismissed the investigation as a political sideshow.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the ranking Democrat on the committee, told reporters Thursday that Republicans are “obsessed with the healthcare of Joe Biden and Joe Biden’s health.”
“They should be putting their efforts and focus on the healthcare of the American public, versus obsessing about Joe Biden and what he did, he didn’t do,” Garcia said.
“That’s in the past; we’re trying to move forward.”
Comer has countered that Democrats are doing little more than running interference for the former president.
After the testimony of another Biden spokesman, Ian Sams, Comer accused Democrats of wasting their time with softball questioning.
“The Democrats’ questioning…may have lasted three minutes,” Comer said.
“They let him read an opening statement, and they did their basic: what’s your favorite color?
“And who’s your favorite cartoon character?”
Bates’s appearance marks another step in the GOP’s effort to determine whether Biden’s aides covered up a crisis in presidential fitness, a question Democrats remain eager to shut down.
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