Andrew Bates arrives for interview in autopen investigation

Andrew Bates, one of former President Joe Biden’s top communications aides, arrived on Capitol Hill Friday morning for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee related to whether senior White House staff shielded the then-president’s mental decline from public scrutiny and usurped his constitutional powers during his final year in office.

Bates, Biden’s senior deputy press secretary who remained in the administration until it ended in January, declined to answer reporters’ questions as he entered the interview room shortly before 10 a.m. His testimony marks the latest turn in a sweeping investigation that has already ensnared 10 other former Biden officials and exposed a pattern of executive decision-making by proxy.