Senate Democrats largely boycotted a high-profile Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday that aimed to examine what Republicans are calling a “cover-up” of former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness, fueling accusations that the minority party is avoiding accountability over growing concerns about the President’s cognitive decline.
Of the Democrats on the committee, only Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) appeared, and both exited shortly after making brief remarks. The rest of the Democratic members were absent. Their decision to skip the hearing did not go unnoticed.
“I will note that few of my Democratic colleagues are here today — thank you to Sen. Welch from Vermont for being here — leaving us with no other option than to take the boycotting of this hearing as an admission of guilt for their role in this crisis,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), calling the near-total absence “telling.”
Republicans on the committee, including Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO), sharply criticized Democrats for refusing to address what they described as an unprecedented dereliction of leadership under Biden.
“Given [Biden’s] mental incapacity, the American people deserve to know who was running the country for the last four years,” Schmitt said, pointing out that Democrats failed to call a single witness of their own. “Their absence speaks volumes — an implicit admission that the truth is too inconvenient to face.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) added, “Not a single Democrat is here today because not a single one of them gives a damn about the fact that they lied to the American people for four years. They knew, every one of them knew, that Joe Biden was mentally not competent to do the job.”
The hearing featured testimony from figures such as former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer and focused on what Republicans say is mounting evidence that former President Biden’s public appearances and policy directives have increasingly been managed by staff to conceal his decline.
Durbin, who briefly attended, attempted to redirect the conversation by playing a compilation of President Donald Trump’s controversial statements over the years, questioning Trump’s cognitive abilities in response. The Democrats on the committee later posted the supercut to social media, labeling the hearing a “sham” and claiming they were “focused on the critical challenges facing our nation.”
Republicans pushed back, saying that invoking Trump’s past statements did not excuse Biden’s alleged incapacity or justify the lack of transparency.
