Andrew Bates, a former senior deputy press secretary for President Biden, slammed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigating his former boss on Friday in an opening statement he made to the panel.
Bates is on Capitol Hill as one of multiple former Biden aides who have gone in-person before the panel for the committee’s investigation into Biden’s mental acuity and use of an autopen. He appeared voluntarily.
The former White House official lambasted President Trump in his statement to the GOP-led panel. He said lawmakers were wasting taxpayer money to investigate Biden but turn a blind eye to a multitude of what he deemed offenses being committed by the Oval Office’s current occupant.
“As illegal tariffs raise the costs that Trump promised to lower, the sitting president is profiting off of the American people. He has sold special access to whomever bought the most of his
cryptocurrency. He is illegally trying to take over the Federal Reserve, which Republican
economists warn will increase inflation,” Bates said, according to his statement obtained by The Hill.
He went on to point out Trump’s acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar, the pardoning of convicted Jan. 6 rioters who assaulted police and the transferring of Ghislaine Maxwell to minimum security facility.
“To my knowledge, none of the above are being investigated. As a taxpayer and private citizen, I feel that is wrong,” he said.
He also criticized the GOP for voting to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt with his passage of the “big, beautiful bill,: which the Congressional Budget Office estimated will add to the nation’s deficits over the next decade, and is now “spending taxpayer dollars investigating Joe Biden – an honorable man under whom the economy performed far better than it is today – while turning a blind eye to corruption under Donald Trump.”
Bates began his statement in a similar vein to other former Biden aides before panel, saying Biden was “in charge” as the panel continues to dig into the former president’s mental acuity during his time in office.
Biden ultimately dropped his reelection campaign after pressure from Democrats who believed he could not win a second term in office due to a poor debate performance in which he at times looked confused and fumbled his words.
“In the White House, it was universally understood that Joe Biden was in charge. That is completely consistent with my personal experience with the President,” Bates said.
Bates arrived on the hill just before 10 a.m. and didn’t talk to reporters on the way in to the interview, which is expected with just committee staff and no members.
Bates focused more on criticizing the GOP panel’s investigation and Trump’s policies and actions than his former colleagues did in their statements.
Ian Sams, former special assistant to the president and senior adviser in the White House counsel’s office, provided a voluntary transcribed interview last month. After the fact, Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Sams said he had communicated with Biden just twice, even as he issued daily press statements about the president.
Anita Dunn, an close advisor to former Biden, told the committee last month that despite aging in office, Biden made all of his own decisions. She stressed that staff was not behind decisionmaking in an effort to combat Trump accusing the former president of not being mentally competent and allowing senior aides to sign major executive documents with an autopen.
Additionally, Steve Ricchetti, also a former top adviser to Biden, told lawmakers the ex-president was “fully capable of exercising his presidential duties.”
Other members of Biden’s inner circle who testified included Bruce Reed and Mike Donilon. Some former aides the panel has sought testimony from did not appear voluntarily and were subpoenaed by Comer.
