‘There was no nefarious conspiracy’: Ex-top Biden official forcefully pushes back on GOP probe of mental decline

A top Biden White House aide on Wednesday delivered a forceful retort in the face of Republicans’ probe of the former president’s cognitive decline.

A former top advisor to Joe Biden forcefully pushed back on the GOP-led House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the former president’s cognitive decline and possible efforts to cover it up, calling the probe an “unprecedented effort” to intimidate the prior administration. In a statement delivered to the committee as part of his closed-door testimony Wednesday, former Biden counselor Steve Ricchetti said he was cooperating with the inquiry “because I believe it is important to forcefully rebut this false narrative about the Biden presidency and our role in it.” “There was no nefarious conspiracy of any kind among the president’s senior staff, and there was certainly no conspiracy to hide the president’s mental condition from the American people,” Ricchetti said in the statement obtained by CNN. Ricchetti, who sat voluntarily for the interview, is the first of two Biden White House aides scheduled to appear this week as part of the committee’s investigation. Former senior Biden advisor Mike Donilon is set to appear Thursday, and the committee is expected to hold more voluntary interviews in the coming weeks, including with former deputy chief of staff for policy Bruce Reed on Tuesday and former senior adviser to the president for communications Anita Dunn next Thursday. In his opening statement, Ricchetti said he did not have any concerns that Biden couldn’t do the job. “At all times during his presidency, I believed that President Biden was fully capable of exercising his Presidential duties and responsibilities, and that he did so. Neither I, nor anyone else, usurped President Biden’s constitutional duties, which he faithfully and fully carried out each and every day,” Richetti said.