Ex-White House officials to testify on who 'really ran the country' during Biden era

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Republicans issue first subpoena in Biden mental decline probe: 'Huge scandal'

Fox News' David Spunt reports the latest on the Republican-led effort to probe Biden's mental decline. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also joined 'The Faulkner Focus' to discuss the investigation, ICE agents who are stuck in Djibouti and more. 

FIRST ON FOX: Senate Republicans are moving full steam ahead with their probe into the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden's reported mental decline and have unveiled their witness list for the forthcoming hearing.

The witness list for the upcoming hearing, which is set for Wednesday and is the first congressional hearing on the subject, includes former members of President Donald Trump's first administration and a legal scholar, each selected to give their perspective on how Biden’s inner circle and the media allegedly hid his declining health.

SENATE REPUBLICANS PLAN HEARING ON BIDEN'S ALLEGED COGNITIVE DECLINE COVER-UP

Sens. John Cornyn, left, and Eric Schmitt launched a hearing into the alleged cover-up of former President Joe Biden's health decline. (Getty)

Included on the list of witnesses are Theodore Wold, who formerly served as acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department and deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Trump administration; Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary and communications director; and John Harrison, a legal scholar from the University of Virginia School of Law who previously served during former the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Democrats on the committee did not call any witnesses, however. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., contended that the hearing was a waste of time.  

"We have so many important topics to consider, and this is a totally political undertaking by several of my colleagues," he said. "It is a waste of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s time." 

The hearing, led by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., was announced last month and will zero in on the alleged concealment of the 82-year-old former president’s reported mental decline while in office by the media and those closest to him.

Cornyn told Fox News Digital that the trio of witnesses selected for the hearing "have impressive records defending our Constitution and serving in the West Wing."

HOUSE GOP SECURES FOUR KEY WITNESSES IN BIDEN MENTAL-DECLINE PROBE AS FORMER AIDES AGREE TO TALK

Then-President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., on July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

"This week’s hearing is an important opportunity for the American people to get the answers they deserve about who was really running the country when Joe Biden’s health was obviously declining and the constitutional questions raised by an unfit president," he said.

Schmitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the alleged cover-up was "a threat to our nation and it undermined our Constitution — we must ensure it never happens again."

"I look forward to hearing from our panel of witnesses who will share their expertise on the Constitution, the approval process within the White House, and the media’s access to the President," he said. "The American people are demanding accountability, and this hearing will be the first step in that process."

All three witnesses told Fox News Digital that they planned to attend. Both Harrison and Wold said that they planned to testify on Biden's usage of the autopen, and, in Wold's case, the "unique threat posed by the frequent use and reliance on [the] autopen signature to conceal a president’s obvious infirmity or incapacity" and how it acted as a smokescreen for the possible usage of the 25th amendment. 

Meanwhile, Spicer said that he would testify about the media's alleged cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline. 

"The scrutiny that was baselessly directed at President Trump during his first term was wholly absent from the media coverage of the Biden White House," he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "The media lacked any sense of curiosity that would naturally stem from what the public could see with their own eyes. Even in the face of deeply concerning–and public–signs of President Biden’s mental and physical decline, legacy media outlets were silent."

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE ABANDONS DEMS AFTER YEARS FIERCELY DEFENDING BIDEN POLICIES

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, right, is demanding three high-ranking staffers in former President Joe Biden’s White House appear for transcribed interviews. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Cornyn and Schmitt join their colleagues in the House who are similarly demanding answers about what really went on behind the scenes during Biden’s presidency.

House Republicans are pushing to create a select committee that would investigate the Biden administration’s alleged cover-up.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., introduced legislation last month to start a committee that would dive into "the potential concealment of information from the American public" regarding Biden’s health.  

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Additionally, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has called on several high-ranking staffers from the Biden White House to participate in transcribed interviews regarding their alleged roles in covering up the former president’s decline.

Of the 10 witnesses he called to attend, only four agreed to participate, including the director of Biden's former Domestic Policy Council; Neera Tanden, Biden's assistant and senior advisor to the first lady; Anthony Bernal, former special assistant to Biden and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley Williams; and Biden's Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini.