Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told House Oversight Committee investigators that she did not observe a decline in former President Joe Biden’s competency over several years, but acknowledged he was “not the same speaker he was when she met him,” a source familiar with the interview told Fox News Digital.
Jean-Pierre made the remarks during a nearly five-hour, closed-door, transcribed interview with investigators examining whether senior White House officials concealed concerns about Biden’s mental and physical fitness and whether autopen use had been improperly relied on to approve pardons or executive actions. She declined to speak to reporters before or after the session.
A source told Fox News Digital that Jean-Pierre, who worked for Biden in various capacities from 2009 through the end of his presidency, said she “did not see a change in President Biden’s competency.” The source said she also told investigators she did not know why Biden’s speaking had changed and that she never asked him about it.
Jean-Pierre said talking points that appeared in her press briefing binder were entered by “various advisors,” but that messaging specifically related to the president’s health and mental acuity was “handled exclusively at the senior level.” She cited a talking point concerning “cheap fakes,” an allegation at the time that manipulated videos were being spread online to misrepresent Biden’s condition. Jean-Pierre told investigators the “cheap fakes” line appeared in her binder but that she did not know who added it.
The former press secretary said she never spoke with anyone in the White House who was personally concerned about Biden’s health, according to the source.
Jean-Pierre, who took over as White House press secretary in 2022 after Jen Psaki and remained in the role until the end of Biden’s presidency in January, was among a string of former Biden administration officials interviewed by the committee. She publicly defended the president following a June 2024 debate with then-candidate Donald Trump, telling reporters in early July that she had been told by senior staff Biden had a cold and that the president was “as sharp as ever.”
Her relationship with some in Biden’s circle cooled after she announced earlier this year that she was leaving the Democratic Party in a press release for her forthcoming book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, the source said.
The Oversight Committee inquiry is being led by Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and has focused in part on whether autopen — a device that reproduces a signature — was used to sign documents without the president’s direct involvement and whether White House officials concealed concerns about the president’s ability to authorize executive actions or pardons. Comer has said the autopen probe is nearing its conclusion.
Comer told reporters this week that email exchanges uncovered during the investigation raised questions about the sufficiency of the process used for autopen signings and whether those actions were lawful. “When people in the Department of Justice email people who they believe were the ones making the decisions on the autopen and asked the question … ‘Does the president even know who they just pardoned?’ I mean, that’s very concerning,” Comer said.
Jean-Pierre’s interview was transcribed for the committee record. A source described her appearance as part of a broader effort by investigators to interview multiple former White House officials to determine who handled communications about the president’s health and cognition and whether messaging was coordinated at senior levels.
Fox News Digital sought comment from Jean-Pierre’s lawyers and from Biden’s office; neither responded immediately, the outlet reported. The Oversight Committee has not released the transcripts publicly, and Comer’s office has declined to disclose which witnesses will be interviewed next as the probe continues.
The interviews and document reviews reflect a months-long congressional inquiry that has combined testimony from former aides with newly surfaced emails, internal White House documents and Department of Justice messages to trace how decisions about public messaging and presidential authorizations were made. The committee’s next steps will likely depend on whether lawmakers determine additional witnesses or documents are needed to resolve questions about autopen procedures and the handling of concerns about the president’s fitness for office.