Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary during President Donald Trump‘s first term, will testify Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of a Republican-led hearing investigating whether former President Joe Biden’s top aides and members of the press helped obscure signs of cognitive decline throughout his presidency.
The 10:15 a.m. hearing on Wednesday, titled “Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution,” with Republican Sens. John Cornyn (TX) and Eric Schmitt (MO) as cochairmen, marks a new push by Senate Republicans to revive concerns about who was running the executive branch during Biden’s time in office.
Republicans plan to argue that the White House relied heavily on unelected aides to guide major decisions while Biden struggled publicly and privately with basic tasks, and that elements of the legacy press knowingly withheld or downplayed signs of his deterioration. Rather than focus on Biden’s health, GOP lawmakers are expected to zero in on constitutional questions about executive authority, chain of command, and internal White House decision-making.
Also slated to testify are John Harrison, a constitutional law professor at the University of Virginia, and Theodore Wold, a former Trump administration official now affiliated with the Claremont Institute’s Administrative State Project.
Following the announcement of the Senate hearing earlier this month, Schmitt announced last week a “whistleblower hotline” to receive tips from former White House staff to report any information regarding “the cover-up of President Biden’s decline” or information about “who was running the country while the President was sidelined.”
“Americans are rightfully concerned about the massive cover-up that occurred during Joe Biden’s presidency, and they deserve answers. As we prepare for next week’s Judiciary hearing, I encourage anyone with information regarding the Biden cover-up to share their stories. We must ensure our Constitution is never undermined like this again,” said Schmitt.
Democrats on the committee have largely dismissed the hearing as a partisan spectacle based on unsubstantiated conspiracies and have no plans to bring in their own witnesses.
“We have so many important topics to consider, and this is a totally political undertaking by several of my colleagues,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), a ranking Democrat on the committee, told reporters. “It is a waste of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s time.”
Durbin, according to an aide, will deliver a brief opening statement before exiting the hearing. Other Democratic members may also skip the proceedings.
The hearing by Senate Republicans coincides with renewed public interest in Biden’s use of autopen signature authority, which some Republicans argue reflects a broader abdication of presidential responsibility. Concerns over Biden’s physical and mental state were elevated around the release of Original Sin, a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson, which highlighted that top aides worked to conceal Biden’s deteriorating cognitive abilities from the public and even from other White House officials.
NEW SENATE INVESTIGATION INTO WHO WAS RUNNING THE COUNTRY FOR BIDEN
Later this month, House Republicans are preparing to interview current and former Biden officials behind closed doors about White House decision-making processes and the role of presidential aides behind the scenes.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has forged clear distinctions in his committee’s post-Biden presidency investigation, focusing more on interviewing actual former Biden staffers, including via a subpoena lodged against former White House physician and Biden’s personal doctor, Kevin O’Connor.