WASHINGTON — Longtime Biden confidant Mike Donilon bashed Democrats in Congress for overreacting to the then-president’s fumbling June 2024 debate performance during his six-hour closed-door interview before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday.
Donilon, 66, who served as a senior adviser to the president and has been in Joe Biden’s orbit since the early 1980s, insisted that his old boss’s communications skills grew stronger throughout his presidency, a source familiar with his transcribed interview told The Post.
“What I saw, day in and day out, was a leader who was deeply engaged and in command on critical issues, both at home and abroad,” Donilon told the Oversight panel’s lawyers during his opening statement, according to the Associated Press.
“Every president ages over the four years of a presidency and President Biden did as well, but he also continued to grow stronger and wiser as a leader as a result of being tested by some of the most difficult challenges any president has ever faced.”
Many Democrats have described Donilon as a true believer in Biden, 82. Famed Obama strategist David Axelrod argued that Donilon was so “tied to Biden emotionally that he could not accept the truth.”
That conviction was on full display at his interview on Thursday, during which he vehemently defended Biden’s fitness for office.
“To display his delusion, Mr. Donilon stated during his transcribed interview that he believes the punditry and Democrats in Congress overreacted after Joe Biden’s disastrous debate,” the source told The Post.
“Donilon stated that Joe Biden’s communications skills got stronger throughout his time as President.”
Last month, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee summoned Donilon to appear before the panel, and he is now the eighth ex-Biden aide to appear before the panel.
Questioning was done by the Oversight Committee’s attorneys rather than lawmakers on the panel, who were mostly far away from Washington, DC, and enjoying recess in their home districts.
Back in May, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) revived his probe into whether there was a “cover-up” of Biden’s mental acuity that he had initiated last Congress — an inquiry he has since broadened to encompass the 46th president’s use of autopen to sign official documents.
Strikingly, Donilon “did not recall having any knowledge of the autopen,” and didn’t “know what the autopen was used for,” according to the source.
The 66-year-old was described in the bombshell book “Original Sin” as a member of the “Politburo,” the group of aides closest to Biden who were characterized as the “ultimate decision-makers” on his team.
During the private questioning, Donilon was adamant that Biden was the best man to lead the country throughout his term in office.
Still, he wasn’t oblivious to the public skepticism of the 46th president, acknowledging the angst over his string of verbal flubs and flagrant mishaps.
“Donilon admitted that Joe Biden’s presence wasn’t as commanding and he could stumble over more words,” the source said, noting that Donilon admitted he was “frustrated and knew it was difficult to get past the visuals of President Biden that people were seeing.”
Having worked for Biden since 1981 in various capacities, Donilon raked in a fat paycheck. While working for Biden’s 2024 campaign, he reaped an eye-watering $4 million and would have gotten another $4 million if the 46th president won reelection, Donilon told lawmakers during the interview.
Peering away from reporters with his bushy white eyebrows, Donilon ignored questions from the press both before and after his roughly six-hour interview.
Other aides to appear before the powerful investigative panel, including former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain; former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti; Jill Biden’s powerful former chief of staff Anthony Bernal; former presidential physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor; Ashley Williams, former special assistant to the president and deputy director of Oval Office Operations; and Neera Tanden, the former White House director of the Domestic Policy Council.
Next week, Bruce Reed, former deputy chief of staff for policy, and Anita Dunn, former senior advisor to the president for communications, will appear before the panel.
