As more reports emerge about former President Biden’s alleged cognitive decline during his time in office, a Republican senator has made an explosive new claim: that Biden would sometimes get lost in a closet inside the White House while serving as commander-in-chief.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., made the stunning claim on “Hannity” Friday, citing an unnamed Secret Service whistleblower who Hawley said was assigned to Biden.
“He [Secret Service member] told me that Biden used to get lost in his closet in the mornings in the White House,” Hawley said. “I mean, the guy literally stumbling around in the White House residence couldn’t find his way out of his own closet. The president of the United States. I mean, this is outrageous. We were lied to.”
Former President Joe Biden stands after delivering remarks on attempting to lower costs for American families at Irvine Valley College in Orange County on October 14, 2022, in Irvine, California. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has claimed that Biden would sometimes get lost in a closet inside the White House. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
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Hawley said the claims were made to him while the senator was investigating the attempted assassination of Trump at a presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July. A gunman’s bullet grazed the ear of then-candidate Trump while one attendee, Corey Comperatore, was fatally struck.
Hawley said the brewing scandal about the Biden administration’s use of an autopen to sign executive orders amounts to “one of the worst constitutional crises of our country’s history.”
“We need to find out who actually signed off, so to speak, on all those autopen signatures and all of those pardons and all of those clemencies.”
President Trump previously trolled former president Joe Biden over ‘autopen signature’ claims (Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump)
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“It’s a rogue’s gallery of crooks and criminals and terrible people, rapists and others, I mean who actually was doing that, we know it wasn’t Biden, he didn’t know anything about it. “we’ve got to figure out who was actually in charge cos it sure as heck wasn’t Joe Biden.”
President Trump on Friday said the autopen is going to become “one of the great scandals of all time” and said he can’t’ believe that a competent Biden would have ever signed off on many of his executive orders, particularly in terms of the border.
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House Republicans, led by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, launched an investigation earlier this month aimed at determining whether Biden, who was in declining health during the final months of his presidency, was mentally fit to authorize the use of the autopen. Comer said this week he was “open” to dragging Biden before the House to answer questions about the matter if need be.
Last week, Comer sent out letters to five of the former president’s closest confidants, including his former doctor in the White House, seeking further answers about Biden’s cognitive health while in office. All five have made contact with the Oversight Committee, but Comer has threatened subpoena power if they refuse to testify.
Then President Joe Biden is helped up after falling during the graduation ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy, just north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, on June 1, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski)
Hawley, meanwhile, also railed against left-wing media for failing to press the president or his office on instances of physical and mental lapses Biden showed while in public. The news comes as a new book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson details the length at which those closest to Biden apparently went to cover up his limitations while in office.
“The press has a huge role in this… They’re supposed to report the truth,” Hawley said. “It’s what you do every night. It is not what the liberal media did though. They sold this country out for years and they did it for power and they need to be held accountable as well.”
Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
