What Biden Chief of Staff Reveals to House Panel on Jill and Hunter

Former President Joe Biden’s White House chief of staff told a congressional panel Thursday that he asked the White House physician about a full medical and cognitive exam after Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate with Donald Trump. 

Jeff Zients is the last scheduled witness to take questions from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for its investigation into Biden’s fitness while he was in office. Zients said that Dr. Kevin O’Connor told him he would take the suggestion under advisement, according to a person familiar with Zients’ closed-door interview with the committee. 

Zients was White House chief of staff from February 2023 to the end of Biden’s term in January 2025. He ignored reporters who peppered him with questions as he walked into the interview with the committee. He told the committee that after Biden’s poor debate performance against Trump, he thought it made sense for the president to drop out of the reelection race.

The House committee has been investigating Biden’s cognitive state and whether staff improperly used the White House autopen for major presidential actions, such as offering clemency to felons, without authorization from the president. 

Zients also said the former president’s son, Hunter Biden, was involved in the pardon discussions and attended meetings on the matter, according to the person familiar with the interview. The then-president pardoned Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun crimes.

Zients told the committee that when he began as chief of staff, first lady Jill Biden asked that he ensure her husband get more rest and not be overscheduled.

He said that for Biden, decisions previously required three meetings and then eventually started requiring a fourth. The 46th president’s difficulty recalling names and dates also got worse, Zients told the panel, according to a person familiar with the transcribed interview. 

On Thursday morning, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., was speaking to reporters briefly as Zients walked through the Rayburn House Office Building. Comer stepped away, and the two men shook hands. 

The committee has had transcribed interviews with more than a dozen former White House officials in Biden’s inner circle about his mental fitness for office. The interviews were not under oath, but it is illegal to lie to Congress. 

Three other officials would not voluntarily sit for interviews and had to be subpoenaed and ultimately invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. They were O’Connor, the Biden White House physician; Anthony Bernal, former senior adviser to first lady Jill Biden; and Annie Tomasini, former deputy director of Oval Office operations. 

Zients said he spoke to all three after the Trump debate. 

He said he and Tomasini discussed tailoring Biden’s schedule and limiting walking distances and the number of stairs he needed to climb, according to the person familiar with the interview. 

When it came to Biden’s appearances, Zients recalled telling Bernal about the need to consider location settings, the frequency of events, and interactions with attendees.

Still, like previous witnesses, Zients blamed Biden’s poor debate performance on having a cold. Nevertheless, he admitted he had seen Biden with a cold before but had never observed him act the way he did at the debate.

He recalled that Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, also thought that Biden should drop out of the race. 

Zients said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough all had concerns about Biden getting reelected.

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