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One of former President Joe Biden’s staunchest defenders in the last year of his presidency only met with the ex-commander-in-chief in person twice while working at the White House, a top Republican said.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has been leading the closed-door transcribed interview of Ian Sams, who served as a top spokesman on matters related to congressional investigations and other probes during the latter two years of the Biden administration.
“That was probably the most informative transcribed interview slash deposition we’ve had thus far. I’ll give Mr. Sams credit. He answered our questions,” Comer told reporters.
“I think one of the most shocking things to me is…he communicated with Joe Biden two times. He saw Joe Biden, talked to Joe Biden two times, the entire stint as White House spokesperson, but yet he would – every day – tweet and issue statements from the podium of the White House.”
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Former President Joe Biden, pictured here in May 2021, and his mental acuity are the subject of a House Oversight Committee probe. (AP Newsroom)
Comer told Fox News Digital in a statement following the interview that Sams interacted with Biden on four occasions in total – two in-person meetings, one virtual meeting, and one phone call.
Sams did notably leave the White House in August 2024, before Republicans began questioning Biden’s autopen use and before the myriad clemency orders were signed by the ex-president. But he did defend Biden during some of the most politically consequential moments of his term.
The longtime left-wing operative served as senior advisor and spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office from May 2022 through August 2024, where he served as a fierce defender of Biden during both House Republicans’ investigations into his ties to family members’ foreign business endeavors, and Special Counsel Robert Hur’s probe into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
Notably, Sams criticized “wrong” and “inaccurate” findings in Hur’s report on Biden in comments to the press in February 2024. Hur had declined to charge Biden, writing that “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
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Comer told reporters on Thursday, however, “In fact, Robert Hur spent more time with Joe Biden than Ian Sams.”
“Ian Sams is the one that would counter everything Robert Hur or anytime anyone would suggest that Joe Biden wasn’t mentally fit. He would say no, he’s at the top of his game,” Comer said. “He interacted with the president two times, the entire time. The entire time he worked in the White House.”
Days after Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump, Sams dismissed House Republicans’ inquiry into Biden’s former White House physician – just one of several instances where he vehemently defended Biden’s mental acuity from scrutiny.
Ian Sams, a former spokesman for both Biden and Harris, appeared before the House Oversight Committee. He’s pictured here on Feb. 1, 2023. (Getty Images)
“Americans question President Biden’s ability to lead the country,” Comer wrote to Dr. Kevin O’Connor in early July 2024. “The Oversight Committee is concerned your medical assessments have been influenced by your private business endeavors with the Biden family”
Sams told Newsweek in response, “Here they go again, pushing their crazy, discredited conspiracy theories in order to score another hit on [Fox News’ Maria] Bartiromo.”
He similarly told MSNBC days after that debate that Biden was “sharp” and asked “tough questions.”
Sams went as far as to send a letter to the White House Correspondents’ Association lecturing outlets like CNN, MSNBC, and the Associated Press for their coverage of Hur’s report.
“When we ask questions, ‘When you said this, did Joe Biden tell you that?’ ‘Well you know, I got it from the president.’ ‘Did Joe Biden tell you this, did Joe Biden send you an email himself?’ ‘Well, no.’ So it raises serious concerns and serious questions about who was calling the shots in the White House,” Comer said.
The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether Biden’s inner circle worked to cover up signs of mental decline in the former president, and if any executive actions were signed via autopen without his full knowledge or approval.
Biden and his allies have publicly dismissed accusations that he was not behind the decisions he made, however.
L-R: Ian Sams, former senior advisor in the White House Counsel’s Office; Andrew Bates, former senior deputy press secretary; former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre; and, Jeff Zients, former White House chief of staff, are expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee investigators behind closed doors. (Fox News)
Specifically regarding the thousands of clemency orders signed via autopen, Biden said he “made every decision” in a recent interview with The New York Times.
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“Rather than drawing conclusions from firsthand experience, Mr. Sams received much of his direction from the White House Counsel and Biden’s inner circle. Mr. Sams repeatedly made broad public claims about the President’s cognitive condition, but he was not in a position to make these claims based on such limited contact,” Comer told Fox News Digital.
“Mr. Sams’s testimony raises serious questions about who is truly calling the shots in the White House. We will continue to press for answers to ensure full transparency for the American people.”
Fox News Digital reached out to a spokesperson for Biden and for House Oversight Committee Democrats for comment.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]
