Jimmy Patronis’ first bill calls for investigation of ‘big lie’ on Joe Biden’s cognitive state

Florida-Special Election
The Fort Walton Republican wants a Jan. 6-style committee looking at the Democratic President's mental capacity.

U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis wants Congress investigating former President Joe Biden’s mental state.

The Fort Walton Republican filed his first bill since his election to Congress, and said he wants to expose Biden’s “big lie.” The legislation would establish a Select Committee on President Biden’s Cognitive Decline.

Patronis teased the bill last week and unveiled a version while countering Democratic rhetoric attacking President Donald Trump’s honesty in the last five years.

“For years, we’ve heard about the ‘big lie’ — and it turned out the big lie was a massive coverup by Team Biden,” Patronis said.

“What we’ve seen to date is many ex-Biden staffers speaking to reporters and making serious claims that Joe Biden was not cognitively present. What they’ve said to reporters was he didn’t know his staff, he didn’t know what was being signed, and that most of his words in private and public had to be scripted. Clearly, that’s a problem.”

Patronis also went after Biden’s staff.

“Most concerning, however, was that the staffers around him knew he wasn’t mentally functional. They knew that he couldn’t retain facts, formulate opinions, or have any ability to articulate himself. Rather than doing the right thing and coming forward to the American people about a President that just couldn’t do the job — steps were taken to hide the truth from the American people.”

Patronis referenced the term Democrats have frequently used to describe Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election, where Biden defeated Trump, was rigged. Trump’s rhetoric inspired his supporters to riot at the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the certification of election results.

Biden ultimately dropped out of the 2024 election in July, and Trump defeated Democratic replacement nominee Kamala Harris in November.

Patronis’ bill hits the hopper amid considerable speculation about Biden’s health following the release of “Original Sin,” a book by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson.

“As Biden withered, steps were taken to limit his access to not only the public, but also his own Cabinet. His personal signature was replaced by the autopen, and his thoughts replaced by scripts, stage directions, and teleprompters,” Patronis said.

“This presents some real problems for our country. For years, the mainstream media, the editorial boards, the special interests, in short, the Washington Swamp, all lectured us about the norms and the importance of institutions to the fabric of our government — and it turns out our government was closer to Idiocracy than the Shining City on the Hill. What greater Constitutional crisis is there than finding out that we basically had no Chief Executive?”

Patronis also has suggested Biden’s mental state could undermine the validity of bills, pardons and orders signed in the latter part of his term.

“I have always felt that transparency is the best disinfectant. That’s why today, I filed legislation creating the Select Committee on President Biden’s Cognitive Decline. The legislation is very simple — I asked my team to dust off the J6 hearings approach and orient it for Biden’s BIG LIE,” Patronis said.

“Some of the key questions to be answered by the Committee include the following: when did Biden’s cognitive abilities begin slipping away; what orders or decisions were made when Biden had reduced capacity; who knew of Biden’s cognitive infirmities and when; and how long were these issues concealed from the American people? And once we establish the facts, Congress can begin holding people accountable and unwinding whatever unconstitutional actions took place during the Big Lie. This situation has created a real mess for our democracy, but through this difficult process, we can begin the healing and reestablish confidence in our institutions.”

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].


4 comments

  • Dave

    June 5, 2025 at 11:08 am

    Can you imagine if we applied the same standards to Trump that we apply to Biden?

    Remember when Trump said that schools were performing surprise gender reassignment surgeries? If Biden had ever been that obviously demented, his own staff would have quit in mass. But for Trump it is an applause line.

    Reply

  • Paul Passarelli

    June 5, 2025 at 11:13 am

    I’d like to toss out one idea that could be the silver lining to the dark cloud of Sleepy Joe’s presidency.

    While Biden was asleep at the switch, none of our capable adversaries elected to lob nuclear warheads onto any US cities. We can be reasonably certain that all the foreign intelligence agencies had full knowledge that the fool with the football was incompetent.

    We can draw various conclusions:
    The first is they knew better. The second is still enlightened self interest. Third is based on the old bromide “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making mistakes.” Fourth, well, you get the drift.

    Reply

  • Trump is insane, maybe start there?

    June 5, 2025 at 11:34 am

    WHAT A BUNCH OF TOTAL HYPOCRITES!

    Reply

  • KJP

    June 5, 2025 at 12:23 pm

    Everyone knows that Biden was gone mentally. The Demo machine hid him in the basement for the 2020 election. The machine and the media were in it together along with the voting harvesting to push him across the finish line. Once in the machine and the media continued to protect him and the weapon of mass destruction, the auto pen, took over. Seeing Biden getting out of the car at Normandy last year is all one needs to see. He looked like he just stepped onto the moon. Had no idea where he was.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, Liam Fineout, A.G. Gancarski, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Andrew Powell, Jesse Scheckner, Janelle Taylor, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704