(The Center Square) Dr. Kevin O’Connor, former president Joe Biden’s physician, has been subpoenaed by a U.S. House of Representatives panel investigating the physical and mental fitness of the 46th president.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, ordered O’Connor to appear for a deposition on June 27 as part of the investigation into Biden’s “cognitive decline.” The date, ironically enough, is one year to the day his only debate with Donald Trump went horribly wrong leading to an eventual withdrawal from the campaign on July 21.
Previously, Comer “requested” O’Connor to appear voluntarily for a transcribed interview but he refused. The chairman also noted that in the last Congress he requested the physician to take part in a transcribed interview, but Comer’s request was blocked by the Biden White House.
In a letter to O’Connor, Comer highlighted an assessment made by the physician in February 2024, months before the former president’s debate performance, that led to withdrawing from the race. The chairman noted that O’Connor said Biden was “’a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.’”
Comer said the committee was also interested in exploring the physician’s “financial relationship with the Biden family” and whether it impacted his assessment of the former president’s physical and mental fitness “to fulfill his duties as president.”
Comer concluded, “Given your connections with the Biden family, the committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people. You refused the committee’s request. However, to advance the committee’s oversight and legislative responsibilities and interests, your testimony is critical.”
In addition to O’Connor, Comer has sent letters to five former senior Biden White House aides, “demanding they appear for transcribed interviews.”
The chairman is seeking answers on the “potentially unauthorized issuance of sweeping pardons and other executive action.”
The subpoena comes on the heels of President Donald Trump issuing an order directing his counsel, the attorney general, and heads of relevant executive agencies to investigate “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state.”
The president is asking whether an autopen was used to carry out executive actions, including executive orders, clemency grants, pardons, and presidential memoranda, and who directed the president’s signatures to be affixed to the documents.
The investigation furthers the debate as to whether the pardons and actions could be voided. Like Trump, Comer calls for transparency, calling the “cover-up” a significant scandal in American history.
“The American people deserve full transparency and the House Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation to provide answers and accountability,” Comer said. “The cover-up of President Biden’s mental decline is one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history.
“These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House. They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots.”
The investigations have been fueled in part by a book written by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, “Original Sin,” which the congressman quoted as claiming, “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Another book, written by former Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, is due in the fall. Entitled “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines,” the combative Biden staffer says she has left the Democratic Party and become an independent. The book’s publisher has promised a run through the three weeks leading up to Biden withdrawing from pursuit of reelection.
