Steve Ricchetti, who was a high adviser to former President Joe Biden and thought of to be in his interior circle, mentioned that Biden was “absolutely able to exercising his presidential duties” in a voluntary interview with the Home Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday, in response to a ready introductory assertion obtained by The Hill.
“Let me be clear: Always throughout his presidency, I believed that President Biden was absolutely able to exercising his Presidential duties and duties, and that he did so,” Ricchetti’s ready assertion mentioned. “Neither I, nor anybody else, usurped President Biden’s constitutional duties, which he faithfully and absolutely carried out every day.”
Ricchetti appeared for a transcribed interview with the Home Oversight and Accountability Committee for the Republican-led panel’s investigation into Biden’s psychological acuity and use of an autopen.
Ricchetti mentioned there was “actually no conspiracy to cover the President’s psychological situation from the American individuals,” and that he was “not conscious of any effort by any member of the White Home employees to usurp the President’s authority to make selections or to signal necessary paperwork with out his data.”
“Did he stumble? Often. Make errors? Stand up on the unsuitable aspect of the mattress? He did – all of us did. However I all the time believed – day by day – that he had the potential, character, and judgment to be President of the US,” Ricchetti mentioned.
Ricchetti appeared voluntarily earlier than the hours-long voluntary interview that began at 10 a.m. on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. He didn’t reply questions from reporters whereas heading into the interview.
His assertion mentioned efforts by Republicans and the Trump administration “to taint President Biden’s legacy with baseless assertions about President Biden’s psychological well being are an apparent try to deflect from the chaos of this Administration’s first six months.”
Ricchetti charged that the Home Oversight Committee’s investigation “is a part of a concerted effort by the Administration and its Congressional allies to decrease the document of the previous President by advancing the false narrative that President Biden was mentally unable to carry out his Constitutional duties and that members of his employees usurped the President’s Article II powers.”
The highest Biden aide mentioned he appeared voluntarily as a result of he believed it necessary to “forcefully rebut this false narrative concerning the Biden Presidency and our position in it.”
A number of different former aides from the Biden administration that the panel has sought testimony from didn’t seem voluntarily and had been subpoenaed by Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.).
These Biden aides invoked their Fifth Modification rights and refused to reply the committee’s questions in current depositions: Anthony Bernal, former chief of staff to first lady Jill Biden; deputy director of Oval Office operations Annie Tomasini; and Biden’s former White House doctor Kevin O’Connor.
Others, although, have appeared voluntarily and answered the panel’s questions, including former White Home chief of employees Ron Klain and former Biden aides Ashley Williams and Neera Tanden.
Mike Donilon, one other high Biden aide who was a senior advisor to the President, is scheduled to look for a voluntary interview on Thursday.
Different Biden aides scheduled for voluntary transcribed interviews via September embody Bruce Reed, former deputy chief of employees for coverage; Anita Dunn, former senior advisor to the president for communications, Ian Sams, former particular assistant to the president and senior advisor within the White Home Counsel’s Workplace; Andrew Bates, a Biden senior deputy press secretary; Karine Jean-Pierre, former White Home press Secretary; and Jeff Zients, former White Home chief of employees.
NewsNation contributed to this report.