Ricchetti tells House Oversight he believed Biden "was fully capable" during presidency, rebuts accounts of staff conspiracy

Steve Ricchetti, a longtime White House aide who served as counselor to President Joe Biden, told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform during a voluntary, transcribed interview that he believed "at all times during his presidency" Biden was capable of exercising presidential duties. "I firmly believe at all times during my 4 years in the White House, President Biden was fulfilling his constitutional duties," Ricchetti said, according to the committee transcript.

Ricchetti said the volume of reporting and several recently published books that portray White House staff as running a covert operation to hide Biden's condition are inaccurate and exaggerated. "There was no nefarious conspiracy of any kind among the president's senior staff and there was certainly no conspiracy to hide the president's mental condition from the American people," he said.

The witness, who answered questions for more than six hours, described daily work alongside the president and told committee counsel that he frequently briefed Biden, traveled with him…