Joe Biden’s long-time aide and confidante, Mike Donilon, testified before the House Oversight Committee in its ongoing investigation of the former president’s mental acuity and use of an autopen to conduct official business.
In a prepared statement, under oath, Donilon told the committee, “What I saw, day in and day out, was a leader who was deeply engaged and in command on critical issues, both at home and abroad.”
Donilon has been a friend and aide to Biden for more than 40 years. He could hardly be expected to say anything else.
Donilon’s testimony was given behind closed doors, so we only have second-hand sources to relay what Donilon told the committee.
Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN host Jake Tapper, in their book “Original Sin,” claimed that “The president valued Mike Donilon’s advice so much that aides would later joke that if he wanted, he could get Biden to start a war,” the authors wrote.
“But he also continued to grow stronger and wiser as a leader as a result of being tested by some of the most difficult challenges any president has ever faced,” he said.
Donilon was paid $4 million to run Biden’s aborted campaign. His contract called for him to be paid another $4 million if Biden won. “This raises concerns about his self-interest in getting President Biden to the finish line and may have influenced his judgment about President Biden’s cognitive state in the last weeks of the campaign, even after the disastrous debate performance,” the Washington Times Oversight Committee source said.
Fox News:
Biden infamously dropped out of the 2024 race after his disastrous debate against Donald Trump in June of that year, after weeks of mounting pressure by fellow Democrats, both in public and in private.
Donilon told investigators he “believes the punditry and Democrats in Congress overreacted after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate,” the source said. Donilon also argued Biden’s communications skills “got stronger” during his time as president, the source added.
“During his interview, Mr. Donilon admitted that Joe Biden’s presence wasn’t as commanding, and he could stumble over more words. Mr. Donilon stated he was frustrated and knew it was difficult to get past the visuals of President Biden that people were seeing,” the source said.
In his opening statement, obtained by Fox News Digital, Donilon emphasized his 40-year relationship with Biden and touted the Democratic administration’s accomplishments through the COVID-19 pandemic, the rebound in job growth in its wake and the Inflation Reduction Act and other legislative wins.
Donilon may have been the only person in the White House besides Jill Biden who could have told the president he was unfit to serve and have Biden hear him out. That he had a monetary interest in keeping his boss in the race should be of great interest to the committee.
Biden aides are taking the Fifth, and others are carefully avoiding blame for their failure to confront the president and tell him what surely Donilon and all his other top aides knew, that Biden was unfit to serve.
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In his letter requesting his appearance, Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer wrote, “You were reportedly responsible for erecting a wall between the former president and senators ‘to shield Biden from bad information.’” That wall worked not only to shield Senators, but also the press and public from the president’s deteriorating condition.
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