While Jeff Zients didn’t want to talk to reporters, he apparently had plenty to say to the House Oversight committee about his time as the Biden White House’s second chief of staff.

After Ron Klain’s emotional departure from the job, Zients took over as chief of staff. As a result, he had a front-row seat to the real time decline of Joe Biden – and how no one around the 46th president wanted to admit that something was going very, very wrong. Not that Zients would actually admit to anything being wrong. Biden just needed more time to do everything!

Former White House chief of staff Jeff Zients revealed to Congress Thursday that former President Joe Biden’s memory and decision-making capability deteriorated while in office, according to a source familiar with the ex-aide’s transcribed interview.

Zients, who declined to answer reporter questions, also told the House Oversight Committee that he told White House physician Kevin O’Connor that Biden should have “a full medical workup” — including a cognitive exam — after his disastrous June 27, 2024, debate performance, added the source.

Over the course of a six-hour grilling by Oversight staff, Zients also revealed that Biden began having “difficulty remembering dates and names,” while “decisions that once required three meetings eventually began to require a fourth,” according to the first source.

Those age-related issues were also a subject of conversation in the West Wing throughout the former president’s term, with first lady Jill Biden asking that her husband not be “over-scheduled” and be allowed to “return to the residence” earlier in the day, this person said.

O’Connor, who purportedly considered giving Biden the cognitive test, and Jill Biden’s chief of staff Anthony Bernal previously pleaded the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions from the Republican-led panel — and Zients spoke with both of them about the president’s “age issues,” according to the first source.

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, who also pleaded the Fifth, talked with Zients about having staff “limit walking distances and the number of stairs he needed to climb,” the first source said.

It seems like the closer one was to the Biden inner circle, and Jill Biden specifically, the more likely you are to plead the Fifth to the House Oversight Committee. The first Biden chief of staff, Ron Klain, was willing to actually talk to the committee. And Zients, as the last scheduled interview, looks to have largely corroborated and continued the sordid tale onward.

The testimony, described by a source briefed on the interview, contradicts repeated public claims made by the White House during the 2024 campaign. At the time, officials insisted Biden was “sharp,” “engaged,” and “fully capable” of performing his duties, even after widespread concern about his debate performance against then-candidate Donald Trump.

He said Anita Dunn, Biden’s top adviser at the time, who admitted last month that the Robert Hur special counsel report prompted the ex-president to skip the Super Bowl pre-game interview, raised the possibility of a cognitive exam after the debate. Hur found that while there was evidence Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials,” criminal charges would likely not result in a conviction in part due to Biden’s “poor memory.”

Zients also testified that he recommended a full medical workup to Dr. O’Connor after Biden’s disastrous June 27 presidential debate, implying it should include cognitive testing. O’Connor responded that he would take the suggestion “under advisement.” On July 3, 2024, Zients was reportedly telling staffers the debate was just “one night…. We all know is that he is a great president.”

In the interview on Thursday, Zients maintained his belief that Biden’s poor debate performance was due to a cold and losing his train of thought — but also told the Oversight Committee that he had “never seen [Biden] like that before,” and that the performance made him believe the president should exit the race.

Remember, this was about who was wielding power while Joe Biden was steadily declining, and who had control of that autopen. We already knew that too many people had access to it, and depending on what the final report and recommendations from the House Oversight Committee says, we might learn that almost ANYONE with access to Joe Biden could get something signed.

But let’s go back to that debate disaster. The entire country watched Joe Biden figuratively fall apart onstage in real time. History will eventually point to that debate, plus the assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, as the biggest pivot points of the 2024 presidential election. And even though Joe Biden dropped out of the race, it’s clear that he resented being shoved out. Kamala Harris revealed quite a interesting moment between herself and Biden right before her debate with Trump in September in her upcoming book, which got covered in the New York Times.

Full bit. pic.twitter.com/wjEupzF3Vj

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 18, 2025

This tweet earned a reply from a former Biden Department of Justice spokesperson, who offered up two possibilities.

So. Many. Thoughts.

But there are really just two explanations for this:

Biden intentionally tried to rattle her — which was wrong & shortsighted & self-defeating— or he didn’t quite realize what he was doing, which would be far more troubling. https://t.co/OWrUblFjJk

— Anthony Coley (@AnthonyColey) September 18, 2025

The answer is probably a little bit of both. Joe Biden is and was a narcissistic asshole for the entirety of his political career. The image of kindly old man was a carefully cultivated one that came about over the decades of his time in government. We saw the angry old man multiple times during his presidency, just the same as we saw the faltering and confused old man.

And this is what his staff was seeing, day in and day out. The manipulative old man who then became tired and confused. The easily distracted president whom they all chorused was “sharp as a tack,” but had to be shoved out the door when he could no longer put sentences together in a debate setting – which he then insisted HE WON to the person running in his place.

Yet the best that those who were in the Biden White House, minus those who pleaded the Fifth, can admit to is that he just needed more time and rest to do things. That House Oversight Committee report is going to be very interesting reading.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click