Senate Democrats are refusing to take part in a congressional hearing addressing President Joe Biden's mental decline while serving in the White House.
Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., were the only Democrats who attended the kickoff of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday, Politico said. Durbin said the hearing was a distraction from issues the committee should be reviewing like Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., being handcuffed at a Department of Homeland Security press conference and the assassination of a state lawmaker in Minnesota.
"The Republican majority on this committee has not held a single oversight hearing despite numerous critical challenges facing the nation that are under our jurisdiction," Durbin said. "Apparently, armchair diagnosing former President Biden is more important than the issues of grave concern, which I have mentioned."
Durbin also used the hearing to highlight what he believed was President Donald Trump's cognitive decline.
"I think we should consider what happened in Alberta, Canada, just this week where President Trump was at a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and said the following: 'You all know the great PM of the U.K. And we just signed a document, just signed it, so we have our trade agreement with the EU,'" Durbin said. "Britain has not been a party to the EU for five years, but President Trump made a statement, which clearly was wrong."
The Illinois senator also played clips of Trump discussing windmills, Haitian migrants, magnets, COVID-19, and the Constitution.
"Do any of these statements raise a question of cognitive ability? You be the judge," Durbin said.
Welch left the hearing, saying it had no benefit to his constituents.
Dring the hearing, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Biden's inner circle let "their self-interest and their fear of another Trump term justify an attempt to put an at-times addled old man in the Oval Office for four more years."
Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary in the first Trump administration, testified at the hearing.
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