Top Biden aide admits president struggled in final years in office
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Former Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients in July. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Joe Biden had difficulty remembering names and dates, and often required extra meetings to make decisions in the final years of his presidency, his former chief of staff Jeff Zients told congressional investigators Thursday, according to people familiar with Zients' remarks.
Why it matters: Zients is one of the highest-ranking officials from the Biden White House to acknowledge that Biden's age affected his abilities — even as the 81-year-old president was seeking another four years in the Oval Office.
Driving the news: In a closed hearing, Zients told the GOP-led House Oversight Committee that over the course of the presidency Biden began asking for more meetings.
- Instead of having three meetings before making a decision, for example, Biden would want four.
- Zients said Biden had long had trouble with names and dates, but acknowledged to investigators that the president's memory of such facts got worse in the final years of his term.
The intrigue: Zients also said that former First Lady Jill Biden spoke with him about managing Biden as Zients was preparing to take on the role of chief of staff in early 2023.
- She urged Zients to adjust Biden's schedule so he could get more rest and return to the White House residence area earlier in the evening to have time with family members or by himself.
- Longtime Biden aide and deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini also talked with Zients about limiting Biden's schedule and shortening distances and stairs he had to walk, according to Zients.
Zoom in: Zients also told congressional investigators that Hunter Biden became involved in discussions about presidential pardons at the end of Biden's term and sat in on meetings about them.
- Zients did not sit in on the final meeting about the most controversial pardons of Biden's term — the blanket pardons of several members of his family, issued during his final 24 hours in office.
- Zients also confirmed he did not personally send the email authorizing the use of the president's signature via autopen, as Axios previously reported.
- Instead, he had an aide with access to his email account send the authorization on his behalf for some of the most controversial pardons in recent history.
- Zients and a spokesperson for Biden did not comment.
Zoom out: Zients was the last scheduled interview of Biden officials by the committee, which is investigating Biden's use of the autopen and his declining abilities as president.
- Earlier, former Biden spokespeople such as Ian Sams and Andrew Bates, who repeatedly attested to Biden's fitness when he was in office, acknowledged to the committee that they rarely met with Biden and often relied on a small group of senior aides to inform their defense of the president.
- Other senior officials such as Tomasini, Jill Biden's top aide Anthony Bernal, and Biden's doctor Kevin O'Connor all invoked the Fifth Amendment before the panel.
