Ex-Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients called for post-debate cognitive test, said 46th prez’s memory grew worse in office: source

WASHINGTON — 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.

In that forum, the Democrat stumbled over his words, spoke with a soft and raspy voice, and delivered non-sequiturs about public policy — declaring at one point that his administration had “finally beat Medicare.”

Biden’s campaign and White House flacks dismissed the fumbles at the time, claiming the president had a “cold” — though he was spotted within minutes of the debate’s end at a Waffle House.

But Zients claimed the “mental freezes” aides observed were unprecedented, the source related.

Ex-senior White House communications adviser Anita Dunn and former national security adviser Jake Sullivan apparently stressed the importance of a cognitive exam, while former Cabinet officials such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and VA Secretary Denis McDonough — as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken — didn’t think Biden had the juice for a second term.

Several donors also expressed alarm, with one suggesting that the president’s use of a teleprompter to address an intimate campaign fundraiser was concerning.

A second source familiar with Zients’ testimony noted that the chief’s job was “to ensure that the president met with a range of advisers to thoroughly consider issues so that the president could make the best decisions.”

“Jeff had full confidence in President Biden’s ability to serve as president and is proud of what President Biden accomplished during his four years in office,” the source said.

“Biden valued input from a wide variety of advisors and experts,” that source went on, while “the final decisions were made by the president and the president alone.”

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.

The Oversight Committee has already questioned several other aides, including former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who left the Democratic Party in June and announced a tell-all book on the “broken” administration she served.

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.

Robert Kelner, Zients’ attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.