Biden aide Anita Dunn vouches for his mental fitness but says cognitive test was politically risky

Former President Biden’s longtime aide, Anita Dunn, told House investigators Thursday that her boss made all of his own decisions, despite physically aging while in office.

Ms. Dunn came voluntarily for a transcribed interview with the Oversight Committee’s probe into Mr. Biden’s mental decline while president and the use of the autopen to sign official documents.

She said his “authority and involvement in decision making was clear,” and he was “engaged on the substance.”

A source familiar with the interview said that Ms. Dunn said the Biden inner circle decided he should not take a cognitive test because it would not politically benefit him.

Still, Ms. Dunn said Mr. Biden “made all of the important decisions,” according to her opening statement.

“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,” she said. “His ability to probe, to find the weakness in an argument, and to make well-informed decisions, did not change during my time in the White House.”

Ms. Dunn served as a senior adviser to Mr. Biden for over six months in 2021, and again from May 2022 to August 2024.

She insisted that Mr. Biden was “appropriately accessible to the press,” and cited data collected by presidential communications scholar Martha Joynt Kumar that found he conducted 37 press conferences, 151 interviews and 679 informal question-and-answer sessions with the press.

A House Oversight Committee spokesperson said, in a statement, that “It’s no surprise Anita Dunn is telling the American people not to believe their own eyes, claiming Joe Biden was sharp and ’fully engaged.’ This opening statement, leaked to the media before Ms. Dunn even delivered it, is yet another example of the absurd lengths Biden loyalists will go to defend his failed presidency.”

Several former Biden aides have been summoned to answer questions for the House investigators. Former White House deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed appeared earlier this week. A source familiar with his interview said he believed “Americans should not have had any concerns about the president’s mental faculties.”

Last week, Steve Ricchetti, former counselor to the president, and Mike Donilon, former senior adviser to the president, gave transcribed interviews.

Neera Tanden, former staff secretary, Ashley Williams, former deputy director of Oval Office operations and Ron Klain, former chief of staff, also appeared for transcribed interviews.

Both said the probe into Mr. Biden’s mental decline was unnecessary, and that he was a leader throughout his time in office.

Some others who chose not to appear voluntarily and were instead subpoenaed included former White House physician Kevin O’Connor; Anthony Bernal, former first lady Jill Biden’s chief of staff; and Annie Tomasini, a longtime Biden aide.

All three invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.