Executive Summary
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Chairman James Comer,
has investigated the circumstances surrounding President Joe Biden’s diminishing mental and
physical capabilities and the implications of that decline.
1 Even more troubling than the president
experiencing a decline in mental acuity was President Biden’s inner circle of loyalists attempting
to mislead the nation to ignore what people’s eyes plainly showed them. Throughout President
Biden’s term, people increasingly questioned if the slurring of words, mistaking of names,
visible disorientation, confusion and dependence on aides for basic direction—all of which the
public witnessed live—could indicate anything but the serious cognitive decline of President
Biden. The Committee has investigated whether senior Biden White House officials possibly
exercised the authority of the former president or intentionally concealed President Biden’s
rapidly worsening mental and physical state. The Committee has found evidence to indicate they
did both.
The Biden Autopen Presidency ranks among the greatest scandals in U.S. history. As
President Biden declined, his staff abused the autopen and a lax chain-of-command policy to
effect executive actions that lack any documentation of whether they were in fact authorized.
While President Biden became progressively less able to do his job—when every measure
should have been taken to document and, if ever questioned, prove that President Biden had
made final decisions—White House staff took shortcuts and ad hoc actions to keep the Biden
presidency afloat. The Committee has found that there was, in fact, a cover-up of the president’s
cognitive decline and that there is no record demonstrating President Biden himself made all of
the executive decisions that were attributed to him.
A June 2024 CBS News/YouGov national survey found that “72% of voters d[id] not
believe Biden ha[d] the mental or cognitive health to serve as president, as well as nearly half of
his own party.”2 Yet, the president’s inner circle—even his own physician—testified that they
drew very different conclusions than those reached by a significant majority of Americans.
Instead, for the duration of the Biden presidency, his closest advisors recited scripted talking
points about President Biden’s incredible mental fitness. Those same advisors continue to hold
1 During this investigation, Democratic Members and staff have attempted to minimize or outright deny—and have
attempted to cajole witnesses to minimize or outright deny—what is now reported as fact: President Biden is in
mental decline. See, e.g., Shane Goldmacher & Reid J. Epstein, What Kamala Harris’s Decision Not to Run for
Governor Means for 2028, N.Y. TIMES (July 30, 2025) (“Ms. Harris, perhaps more than any other Democrat, would
have to reckon with her support for Mr. Biden as his acuity deteriorated before the American public.”) (Emphasis
added).
This report will not spend words grappling with whether a reported, established fact is anything other than a fact—
and an obvious one. President Biden’s cognitive decline was apparent to any person who watched him interact with
the press, the public, or world leaders for years as president. Assertions made to the contrary are nothing less than
gaslighting. Instead of debating the obvious—and, in so doing, implicitly legitimizing voices that seek to rewrite
history—this report will instead provide findings regarding the extent of President Biden’s decline and the
repercussions and ramifications of that reality.