Reporters were often shut down by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if they asked about former President Biden’s fitness for office. (TING SHEN/AFP via Getty Images)
But a source familiar with the interview shared with Fox News Digital that Jean-Pierre told investigators that while working for Biden in various capacities from 2009 to 2025, "she did not see a change in President Biden’s competency."
"She did acknowledge President Biden is not the same speaker he was when she met him," the source noted. "She does not know why his speaking changed and never asked him."
Jean-Pierre, who is one of the most high-profile figures from the Biden administration to appear before the committee, was among those who publicly defended Biden after his June 2024 debate against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
During the debate, Jean-Pierre said she was told by "senior staff that President Biden had a cold," the source said.
Shortly after the debate, she told reporters at a press briefing in early July that Biden was "as sharp as ever."
House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer is leading a probe into autopen use by President Joe Biden. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Jean-Pierre’s appearance before investigators came as House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said earlier this week that his panel’s ongoing probe into Biden's use of an autopen was coming to its conclusion.
The focus in particular was whether top officials engaged in a cover-up of Biden's mental and physical state in the White House, and whether any executive actions or a litany of pardons were approved via autopen without the then-president's full awareness.
Comer said heading into the hearing that one of the questions at the top of his mind were whether "these pardons and executive orders [are] legal?"
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"I don't think anyone's going to argue that the process that was used for these autopens is the ideal process," Comer said. "And what we've seen with the emails that have surfaced in the last week — even the Merrick Garland Department of Justice was very concerned about how this administration was using the autopen."
"When people in the Department of Justice email people who they believe were the ones making the decisions on the autopen," he continued. "And asked the question via email from the Department of Justice, ‘Does the president even know who they just pardoned?’ I mean, that's very concerning."
Fox News Digital reached out to Jean-Pierre's lawyers and Biden's office but did not immediately receive a response.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/karine-jean-pierre-says-biden-health-talking-points-were-tightly-controlled-senior-level