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Democratic strategist Anita Dunn, who was grilled by the House Oversight Committee on Thursday about President Joe Biden’s cognitive health, declined to answer any questions from Fox News as she walked out of her interview.
Fox News senior national correspondent Aishah Hasnie posed a series of questions to Dunn as she walked toward an elevator.
“Ms. Dunn, can you answer a quick question for us? Were you against doing a cognitive test for President Biden?” Hasnie asked, though Dunn refused to answer.
“Were you afraid of sharing any of the results from a cognitive test? Would you have supported a cognitive test if the doctor would have approved it?” Hasnie continued to ask. “Do you think the president was fit to serve for another four years?”
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Hasnie also inquired whether Dunn had a response to Anthony Bernal’s characterization of her as disloyal in a recently released book.
“Are you disloyal to the Biden family?” Hasnie asked. “Ms. Dunn, why should voters trust Democrats in the White House?”
Dunn did not respond to any of the questions. As the elevator doors closed behind her, she appeared to smile.
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Dunn served as one of President Biden’s top advisors, though reports near the end of his reelection campaign indicated tensions between the two.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and committee lawyers met with Dunn on Thursday, making her the 10th former White House official to appear before the panel. She was expected to be questioned about whether Biden’s inner circle concealed signs of cognitive decline — and whether executive actions signed via autopen were authorized without his awareness.
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During the interview, Dunn revealed that Biden’s inner circle came to a consensus that he should not take a cognitive test, concluding that it would not offer any political benefit, a source familiar with the matter told Fox News.
Despite knowing Biden since the 1980s, Dunn claimed she was unaware of his stutter until it was reported by the media in 2020. She went on to blame the media for pushing a narrative that the former president was old.
Additionally, a second source close to Dunn confirmed Biden’s team decided against doing a Super Bowl interview last year because they thought the main coverage would be about what he did with classified records and not about Biden’s policy decisions.
Dunn told the committee the decision was made before the Hur report came out, the second source confirmed.
Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report, released following October 2023 interviews, raised concerns about President Biden’s mental acuity, and highlighted his struggles to recall key dates, such as his son Beau’s death and his vice presidency, and slurred speech during discussions about mishandled classified documents.
Despite finding that Biden “willfully” retained classified documents from his time as vice president and senator, Hur declined to press charges, citing Biden’s portrayal as a “sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” The report, combined with Biden’s public gaffes, amplified Republican criticism of his mental fitness for the presidency.
Unlike subpoenaed witnesses, Dunn appeared voluntarily for a transcribed interview with committee lawyers.
She first likely engaged with Biden when serving as communications director for Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, in the late 1980s.
Dunn was a central figure in shaping communications policy during Biden’s White House term as well, and she played a key role in helping him prepare for re-election in 2024.
Her husband, lawyer Robert Bauer, is also known as a figure close in Biden’s orbit – having reportedly served as his personal lawyer.
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“If it’s a room of five people, Anita and Bob are two of them,” an unnamed former White House aide told NBC News in January 2023.
But her relationship with others in Biden’s circle has reportedly been rocky at times, particularly toward the end of his four-year term.
Her relationship with Hunter Biden in particular, the former president’s only living son, has been in the spotlight on multiple occasions.
Dunn criticized the president’s handling of his son Hunter’s pardon during an event in Dec. 2024, saying that she disagreed with the “timing” and the “rationale,” describing it as an “attack on our judicial system.”
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