One of the Biden administration’s most visible spokespeople only interacted with former President Biden twice during his tenure, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.).
Former Special Assistant to the President Ian Sams, best known for being the Biden administration’s main spokesman during the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry, is testifying behind closed doors for the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Biden’s mental decline.
Speaking to reporters outside the interview, Comer emphasized that Sams interacted with Biden twice despite his prominent role in defending Biden’s mental fitness and downplaying Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
“I want to say this one more time so everyone understands. Ian Sams, who was the White House spokesperson for a significant amount of Joe Biden’s time as president, interacted with him two times,” Comer said.
“This person, Ian Sams, is the one that would counter everything, Robert Hur, or anytime anyone would suggest that Joe Biden wasn’t mentally fit, he would say, ‘No, he’s at the top of his game,'” Comer added.
Sams worked in the Biden White House from May 2022 to August 2024, when he left to serve on former Vice President Kamala Harris’s doomed presidential campaign. He is a career Democratic operative and worked for Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services before becoming a White House spokesman.
In a follow-up statement, Comer offered more specifics on what Sams recounted during the closed-door deposition.
“Mr. Sams admitted he had very limited interaction with the President—identifying only two in-person meetings, one virtual meeting, and one phone call,” Comer said.
“Rather than drawing conclusions from firsthand experience, Mr. Sams received much of his direction from the White House Counsel and Biden’s inner circle. Mr. Sams repeatedly made broad public claims about the President’s cognitive condition, but he was not in a position to make these claims based on such limited contact,” he added.
Comer pointed out that he interacted with Joe Biden more times than Sams. Former special counsel Robert Hur also had a similar amount of direct interactions with the president. Hur investigated Biden’s handling of classified documents and ultimately declined to pursue criminal charges against the sitting president.
Hur’s February 2024 report on his investigation made note of Biden’s worsening memory and said it was a factor in deciding not to charge him. The report described how Biden failed to recall key dates such as the year his son Beau died and when his vice presidency ended.
🚨 BREAKING: Top Biden comms operative Ian Sams just testified before the House on Joe Biden’s mental decline and CONTRADICTED the other interviews.
Sams only interacted with Biden *2 TIMES* – but constantly said how he knows Biden is mentally “at the top of his game.”
“2… pic.twitter.com/G3RVyHqqIu
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 21, 2025
Sams led the Biden administration’s effort to minimize Hur’s report after it dominated national headlines and heightened concerns about Biden’s mental fitness. Democrats rushed to Biden’s defense when Hur’s report came out, with some accusing him of being a partisan operative and seeking a job in a future Trump administration.
Comer also said Sams’s interview contradicted what Biden’s other aides said about his mental fitness. Two of Biden’s longtime senior officials defended the president’s mental acuity during closed-door interviews last month, as NR previously reported. Biden’s physician and friend Kevin O’Connor and other top aides have invoked their Fifth Amendment rights instead of answering questions before the Oversight Committee behind closed doors.
Several more of Biden’s top officials, including former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, are set to testify for Comer’s investigation in the coming weeks.
Comer’s investigation is focused on how Biden’s top officials managed the president’s worsening mental faculties and whether they used the presidential autopen to make decisions without Biden’s authorization towards the end of his term.
Joe Biden has dismissed the possibility of his senior aides using the autopen without permission to make executive decisions. The Oversight Committee’s probe is one of multiple congressional investigations into Biden’s mental capacity and how his senior aides handled it. The Trump Justice Department is also investigating the matter and Comer has not ruled out sending criminal referrals to the administration.