Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who recently won a U.S. Senate seat after serving multiple terms in the House, appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday and avoided directly answering questions about whether Biden’s closest advisers misled the public about his mental fitness ahead of his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.
Host Kristen Welker asked Schiff about new claims published in Chris Whipple’s book, which alleges that former White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was alarmed by Biden’s behavior during debate preparations earlier this year.
According to the book, Klain observed that the president was “struggling to focus,” seemed “confused about President Trump’s policies,” and even “fell asleep by the pool after cutting one debate prep session short.”
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Welker asked Schiff directly: “Do you think that former President Biden’s advisors misled the American people about his capacities?”
Schiff did not address the question directly and instead deflected.
“You know, it’s hard for me to gauge what the closest advisors to the president were seeing at the time,” Schiff said.
“I can only speak to the interactions that I had with him, which were, you know, in the months leading up to his getting out of the race, largely ceremonial occasions. But, you know, I will say this. He made the decision to get out of the race. I think that was the right decision.”
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Welker did not follow up, and the segment quickly moved on to unrelated topics.
Biden’s health and cognitive fitness became a central topic during the 2024 election cycle, culminating in his decision to exit the race in July after a widely criticized debate performance against President Donald Trump.
Since then, media outlets and political observers have questioned when members of the administration became aware of potential issues and whether the public was kept fully informed.
Schiff, who previously served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and was censured by Congress in 2023 for misrepresenting claims of Trump-Russia collusion, has been a regular guest on national talk shows.
During Sunday’s interview, Schiff also weighed in on President Trump’s newly announced trade policy.
Referring to Trump’s April 2 announcement of a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, Schiff criticized the policy and attempted to draw a contrast between Trump’s actions and the economy.
“And there he is out on the golf course,” Schiff said of Trump.
“That may end up being the most enduring image of the Trump presidency, that is, the president out on a golf cart while people’s retirement is in flames.”
President Trump unveiled the tariff initiative during a Rose Garden event last week, describing the measure as a necessary step toward protecting American workers and revitalizing domestic manufacturing.
The administration also released a chart outlining tariff imbalances with other nations and announced additional trade enforcement actions scheduled to begin April 9.
Schiff did not comment during the segment on how the Biden-Harris administration handled inflation, interest rate hikes, or consumer price increases during its term.
Biden’s economic policies, dubbed “Bidenomics,” were a major topic of debate during the 2024 campaign.
Despite Welker’s initial question regarding Biden’s mental acuity and the conduct of his advisers, Schiff did not address whether the public had been misled.
Neither the senator nor the host revisited the topic during the remainder of the interview.
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