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 on foreign trips and advised on high-level legislative negotiations. He said senior staff routinely reported polling and feedback from lawmakers to the president and that the decision for Biden to end his 2024 campaign was a political calculation influenced by caucus sentiment, donor and leader concerns and campaign polling—not a finding that Biden could not carry out the office's functions.

"We discussed, doing that as a feature of the campaign itself," Ricchetti said when asked about talk that Biden might limit himself to a single term. He added that questions about a president's age and fitness are "legitimate" but that anecdotal mistakes, such as mixing up a name, do not, in his view, constitute evidence of cognitive decline.

Ricchetti repeatedly disputed factual claims in multiple journalistic accounts that have inspired the committee's inquiry. He said some accounts placed him at events he had not attended and presented characterizations that he described as "grossly unfair." He told the committee that he and other senior aides had been asked for interviews by several authors and journalists and that some of those interviews had been conducted "off the record," but that the later portrayals in at least some books were misleading.

On the topic of alleged unauthorized uses of presidential authority, including social media posts and public assertions about a so-called "auto‑pen," Ricchetti said he had no knowledge that any staff member signed orders or took executive actions in the president's name without his authorization. He said he was not involved with an "auto‑pen" process and did not direct its use.

Ricchetti also described the post‑debate period in mid‑2024: senior Democrats, he said, told the White House they were concerned about the campaign's trajectory after Biden's debate performance and pressed for a decision. Ricchetti said those calls were relayed to the president and that the ultimate choice to withdraw was made for strategic political reasons. "He made a decision to step aside to unify the party," Ricchetti said.

Ricchetti read a prepared statement near the close of his testimony repeating many of the same claims: that Biden was "fully capable of exercising his presidential duties," that staff kept the president informed and that there was no effort to "use the AutoPen on important documents without the president's knowledge and consent." He thanked the committee for the opportunity to rebut what he said were "false narratives."

The committee's interview also included repeated exchanges about the scope and precedent of congressional investigations into a president's health, executive privilege and prior waivers. Ricchetti warned that probing a president's private conversations could set a dangerous precedent for future administrations and for the confidentiality necessary in presidential advising.

The Oversight Committee is continuing its multi‑month inquiry into claims about the Biden White House; staff of both parties and outside witnesses have received transcribed interview requests. Ricchetti testified with counsel present and with a transcribed record taken by a court reporter.