The White House has accused former First Lady Jill Biden of continuing to lie about her husband’s health and says she should be forced to explain under oath about what she knew about his cognitive decline.
As Congressional Republicans ramp up their probe into Joe Biden’s mental fitness and the use of an autopen to sign off on crucial decisions while he was in office, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt demanded Dr. Biden come clean.
“I think, frankly, the former first lady should certainly speak out about what she saw in regards to her husband and when she saw it and what she knew,” Leavitt said when asked if Dr. Biden should be among the confidantes who should be investigated.
“Because I think anybody looking again at the videos and photo evidence of Joe Biden with their own eyes and a little bit of common sense can see this is a clear cover-up, and Jill Biden was certainly complicit in that cover-up.
“There’s documentation, video evidence, of her clearly pulling her husband away from the cameras. They were just on The View last week. She was saying everything is fine. She still lies to the American people… and frankly, it’s insulting.”
The comments came after the House Oversight Committee this week sent letters to five confidantes of the former president, including his White House doctor Kevin O’Connor, demanding interviews about Biden’s decline.
The other confidantes include former assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, former director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, former senior advisor to the first lady Anthony Bernal, and former deputy director of Oval Office operations Ashley Williams.
But Jill Biden’s role and influence in the last administration has also come under the spotlight, particularly in the wake of the tell-all book by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, Original Sin.
Within Biden White House circles, the former first lady was known as “The Enforcer” and had extraordinary sway over her husband and those around him.
It was a major transition from someone who once famously wrote ‘NO’ on her stomach and marched into a room full of advisors in a bikini to protest Joe Biden’s White House run in 2004.
But Dr. Biden gave a spirited defense of her husband during her appearance on The View this month, rejecting allegations that she had shielded him from allies and the public.
“I did not create a cocoon around him. I mean, you saw him in the Oval Office. You saw him making speeches. He wasn’t hiding somewhere,” Dr. Biden said.
The former president also pushed back, telling the panel he rejects the claims made in the new book.
“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” he said.
