Former Biden Aide Andrew Bates Appears Before House Oversight Committee

Ex-White House spokesman Andrew Bates is appearing on Capitol Hill Friday morning as the House Oversight Committee continues its probe into allegations of a cover-up by former President Joe Biden’s inner circle.

Bates was a core member of Biden’s communications team for nearly his entire four-year term, rising from deputy to senior deputy press secretary by the time the Democratic leader left office in January 2025.

He’s the 11th former Biden official to appear for the House Oversight Committee’s probe and the ninth to do so voluntarily.

Investigation into Alleged Cover-Up

Three ex-Biden aides – Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini, and ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor – were compelled to appear via congressional subpoena. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has been investigating whether Biden’s senior aides covered up signs of mental decline in the former president, and whether any executive decisions were signed off on via autopen without the then-leader’s full awareness.

They’re looking in particular at the litany of clemency orders that Biden signed in the latter half of his term.

“You served as Senior Deputy Press Secretary in the White House during former President Joe Biden’s Administration. You also served in communications roles during the 2020 Biden campaign and during the Obama-Biden Administration. Other than Karine Jean-Pierre, you were one of the most prominent public-facing defenders of former President Biden’s mental acuity,” Comer wrote to Bates in late June.

Partisan Divide

Democrats have pushed back against the investigation, calling it a needless look into the past. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, said, “They should be putting their efforts and focus on the healthcare of the American public, versus obsessing about Joe Biden and what he did, he didn’t do. That’s in the past, we’re trying to move forward.”