Jacob Ogles
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.”
5 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.
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.
Trump is insane, maybe start there?
June 5, 2025 at 11:34 am
WHAT A BUNCH OF TOTAL HYPOCRITES!
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.
Victoria Olson
June 7, 2025 at 11:30 pm
It’s been heartbreaking to see some people rush to use Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis as a political weapon. He’s spent his life fighting for this country. You don’t have to agree with every decision he’s made to acknowledge the truth: Joe Biden is a decent man. A good man. And he deserves respect during one of the hardest moments anyone can face—for his sake and for his family’s.
The erosion of basic decency in our politics is painful to witness. Yes, I want a stronger Democratic Party—one that will stand up to Trump’s GOP and protect people from the cruelty baked into their agenda. But that fight can’t come at the cost of our moral compass. If we lose our humanity, what exactly are we fighting for?
Biden deserves the chance to rest, to recover, and to spend time with his beautiful family. And honestly, if your first instinct in someone else’s moment of crisis is to chase clout or score cheap points, you need to take a hard look in the mirror. That applies to the far-right commentators exploiting his illness—and also to some of Biden’s loudest online defenders, who seemed disturbingly quick to dunk on anyone they saw as a political threat. What are we doing?
Yes, there’s a real and necessary debate about the last four years—what could’ve gone differently, and what comes next. That conversation matters. But let’s not lose the forest for the trees. Right now, Joe Biden needs space. His family needs our compassion. And as Democrats, we need to remember who we are, what we care about, and what kind of country we’re trying to build.
I’m keeping Joe Biden in my heart today. Wishing him strength, grace, and time. I hope you are too.
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