House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said former White House spokesman Ian Sams told lawmakers in a closed-door interview that he met President Joe Biden only twice in person during more than two years in the administration. Comer added that Sams cited just four total interactions with Biden, including one virtual meeting and one phone call. Sams served from May 2022 to August 2024 as senior adviser and spokesman in the White House Counsel’s Office, where he frequently rejected questions about Biden’s age and cognition. He publicly challenged Special Counsel Robert Hur’s February 2024 report, which described Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” and often defended the president during congressional probes into his family’s business dealings. Comer’s panel is investigating whether Biden’s aides concealed signs of cognitive decline and whether executive orders, including mass clemency grants, were signed by autopen without the president’s direct involvement. Comer said Sams’s limited contact raises “serious questions about who is truly calling the shots in the White House.” Biden and his allies have dismissed allegations of diminished capacity, saying the former president personally approved all decisions. Sams and Democratic members of the Oversight Committee have not publicly commented on Comer's characterization of the testimony.