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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Longtime Biden aide testifies in GOP probe that former president aged | |
on job but remained ‘fully engaged’ | |
By Annie Grayer, CNN | |
Updated: | |
1:11 PM EDT, Fri August 8, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
One of ’s former top communications advisers told the House Oversight | |
Committee that she watched the former president age on the job but that | |
he was always in command. | |
Anita Dunn, the former senior adviser to the president for | |
communications, is the latest former Biden aide to voluntarily testify | |
before the Republican-led panel in its probe of the former | |
president’s cognitive decline and possible efforts to conceal it from | |
the public. | |
“While I observed that President Biden aged physically during his | |
time in office, which is something that happens to every president, he | |
remained throughout my interactions with him fully engaged and clear in | |
his directions and supervision,” Dunn said in her opening statement, | |
obtained by CNN. | |
To address an ongoing allegation that Biden did not make his own | |
decisions, Dunn added: “I did not observe White House staff making | |
key decisions or exercising the powers of the presidency without | |
President Biden’s knowledge or consent.” | |
In the closed-door interview, Dunn discussed the decision to not give | |
the former president a cognitive test, two sources familiar with the | |
testimony told CNN. | |
One source familiar with the interview said Dunn testified that | |
Biden’s inner circle came to a consensus he should not take a | |
cognitive test, concluding it would offer no political benefit. A | |
source close to Dunn added that even though the group came to that | |
conclusion, Dunn stated in the interview that they all felt he would | |
pass one. | |
Dunn also discussed the decision to not have Biden participate in an | |
interview around the Super Bowl last year because of the focus at the | |
time around the former president’s handling of classified records, | |
the sources added. | |
The source familiar with the interview said Dunn claimed the decision | |
was made because of information in former special counsel , which led | |
to no charges against Biden but described him as “well-meaning, | |
elderly man with a poor memory.” | |
The source close to Dunn pushed back on that characterization and said | |
Dunn articulated the decision was made for Biden to not participate in | |
a Super Bowl interview before the Hur report was released, and said the | |
decision to not do so was because the then-president’s inner circle | |
thought the main media coverage would be about what Biden did with | |
classified records and not about his policy decisions. | |
Dunn had in the wake of Biden’s decision to step down from the 2024 | |
Democratic ticket. Her testimony to the committee comes as the panel | |
has interviewed top Biden White House aides in recent weeks as part of | |
its intensifying investigation. | |
A number of the former aides have sat for voluntary interviews. | |
On Tuesday, former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed, and | |
former Biden counselor and onetime senior adviser sat for transcribed | |
interviews last week. | |
Several other Biden aides, however, have declined to cooperate with the | |
committee’s investigation and, after being subpoenaed to appear, | |
invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. | |
White House physician , former assistant to the president and senior | |
adviser to the first lady and former assistant to the president and | |
deputy chief of staff have all pleaded the Fifth. | |
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments. | |
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