Comer Says He Is Open to Calling Former President, First Lady After Jill Biden’s ‘Work Husband’ Pleads the Fifth

The chairman of the House’s Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, tells the Sun that he is open to calling President Biden and first lady Jill Biden to testify before his panel after the latter’s so-called work husband invoked his Fifth Amendment right on Wednesday. The House is investigating the former president’s staff’s use of the autopen amid his apparent mental and physical deterioration. The aide who testified on Wednesday, Anthony Bernal, has been a confidant of the Bidens for nearly two decades. He first joined their staff after President Obama tapped Mr. Biden to be his running mate in 2008. Most recently, he served as Mrs. Biden’s chief of staff during her time in the White House. He is now leading Mr. Biden’s post-presidential personal office. After Mr. Bernal invoked his Fifth Amendment right on Wednesday, the chairman cut short the hearing. Mr. Comer then emerged to say that he is not letting up, despite obstacles. “We’re going to try to get answers. We’re going to try to do this rapidly. We’re bringing people in. I mean, we’re doing two or three interviews and depositions a week,” Mr. Comer told reporters after the brief interview with Mr. Bernal. “That is a rapid pace for a congressional investigation.”Mr. Comer tells the Sun that all options are on the table when it comes to this investigation — including calling on the Bidens to sit for interviews with the committee. “Every option’s on the table,” Mr. Comer says. “Hopefully we can give everybody an opportunity to answer simple questions and we’ll go from there. We’ll decide as a committee what steps to take next.”“I think the possibility is very good that we’ll be asking members of the family to come in,” he says. Mr. Bernal is the second member of the Bidens’ inner circle to invoke his right against self-incrimination. Last week, Mr. Biden’s personal physician for nearly two decades also pled the Fifth. The oversight chairman seemed flabbergasted and frustrated on Wednesday after running into roadblocks in his investigation. He says the fact these staffers are not even answering basic questions about whether they were asked to lie about the president’s health is a sign that he needs to keep going. “I think that everyone wants to know, ‘Was Joe Biden mentally capable to execute the duties of the presidency?’” Mr. Comer told reporters. “His doctor and someone [in] his inner circle already pled the Fifth. That’s a simple question.”“I just want to get answers [for] the American people,” the chairman said. Mr. Biden vociferously defended himself recently during a rare sit-down interview with the New York Times — the first interview he has done with the paper since before he became the 46th president. “I made every decision,” Mr. Biden told the Times. The paper disclosed in its investigation that it uncovered 25 instances of the autopen being used for pardons and commutations during the lame-duck period of Mr. Biden’s presidency last winter. The former president said this whole issue is only about President Trump seeking retribution. “Everybody knows how vindictive he is, so we knew that they’d do what they’re doing now,” Mr. Biden told the Times. “I consciously made all those decisions.”Mr. Comer said Wednesday that he simply doesn’t believe the story that Mr. Biden and some of his aides are telling, citing routine use of the autopen for signatures that would otherwise be easy to quickly do by hand. “I’m just trying to picture in my mind,” Mr. Comer said. “In that scenario, if someone brings a document to you [and says], ‘Mr. President, here is a pardon [for] John Doe’ or ‘Here is an executive order to ban fracking. Will you sign it?’”“‘I authorize you to go take this downstairs to the staffer to use the autopen to sign my name,’” Mr. Comer said, putting himself in Mr. Biden’s hypothetical shoes. “That doesn’t seem very efficient.”“We’re trying to understand the process here and they won’t answer simple questions,” the chairman told reporters.

Comer Says He Is Open to Calling Former President, First Lady After Jill Biden’s ‘Work Husband’ Pleads the Fifth

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