Senate hearing on Biden’s mental fitness sparks dramatic Democratic boycott

observers wondering - what are they hiding?

In a dramatic display of division, Senate Democrats almost entirely boycotted a Republican-led hearing on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, that scrutinized former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness and alleged efforts to cover up his cognitive decline during his time in office.

The Guardian reports that out of all Senate Democrats, only Vermont’s Senator Peter Welch chose to attend the session, leaving the chamber nearly empty of opposition.

The hearing, provocatively titled “Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution,” opened with Democratic ranking member Dick Durbin mounting a swift counterattack against the proceedings.

Durbin criticized the Republican focus on Biden’s mental capacity by pointing to the “off-kilter” and often bizarre remarks made by former President Donald Trump.

Shortly after making his point, Durbin exited the hearing room, signaling a refusal by Democrats to legitimize the hearing.

Durbin’s critique centered on contrasting Biden’s alleged cognitive issues with Trump’s recent verbal missteps.

He highlighted an incident following the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada, where Trump incorrectly claimed to have signed a trade agreement with the European Union through Britain.

This is assumed a factual impossibility since the UK left the EU five years ago.

Durbin emphasized the absurdity of the GOP’s focus on Biden’s mental state by stating, “If we’re going to make a question of cognitive ability, I think we should consider what happened in Alberta just this week.”

To underscore his point, Durbin presented a video montage of Trump’s outlandish comments, including false claims about migrants “eating the dogs” and “eating the cats.”

The video also described a hurricane as “one of the wettest we’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water.”

The montage illustrated Durbin’s broader argument that the Republicans were selectively targeting Biden while ignoring Trump’s own verbal blunders.

The hearing itself featured testimony from three Republican witnesses: former Trump administration officials Theodore Wold and Sean Spicer, alongside legal expert John Harrison.

Their discussions focused on claims that Biden may have relied on an autopen device, a machine used to reproduce signatures, rather than personally signing documents, as well as the media’s coverage of the president’s cognitive health.

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn, co-chair of the panel, framed the hearing as an urgent investigation into what he called a “constitutional crisis.”

He alleged that Biden’s team concealed the president’s declining mental faculties during his final months in office.

Cornyn referenced the book Original Sin by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, which claims Biden’s aides actively hid his condition from the public.

“We need to know who was really in charge during those last months,” Cornyn insisted, speculating whether authority lay with Jill Biden, the president’s chief of staff, or unnamed others behind the scenes.

Missouri’s Republican co-chair Eric Schmitt condemned the Democrats’ near-total boycott, calling it a deliberate refusal to confront uncomfortable realities about Biden’s health.

“This de facto boycott isn’t just about not participating,” Schmitt said.

“It’s about refusing to serve the American people, who deserve answers about who was truly leading their government.”

Meanwhile, Senator Peter Welch, the sole Democrat who remained, expressed agreement that the nation faces a constitutional crisis.

However, he placed responsibility squarely on the Republicans and Congress itself, rather than any supposed Biden cover-up.

Welch criticized Congress for neglecting its legislative duties and avoiding substantial debate on critical issues such as the threat of war with Iran and the soaring national debt.

“What has this Senate been doing, other than confirming nominations?” Welch asked pointedly.

He described the process behind the massive reconciliation bill—passed without minority party input, as the real “cover-up.”

Welch lamented that half the country’s citizens, represented by the minority party, had no voice in the policymaking that profoundly affects their lives.

The starkly divided hearing highlighted the deep partisan rift over how to interpret Biden’s mental fitness and the broader functioning of Congress.

Republicans pushed their narrative of a hidden crisis and secretive control behind the scenes.

On the other hand, Democrats accused them of grandstanding and deflecting attention from their own legislative failures.

With the hearing marked by walkouts and absence, questions linger about how much political theater and how much substantive inquiry this Senate panel will deliver.

There are also questions about whether the American public will receive any clear answers about the president’s cognitive health or who really governs from behind the scenes.

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