A member of former President Joe Biden’s inner circle sat with House Oversight Committee investigators for a marathon closed-door interview that lasted more than eight hours on Wednesday.

Steve Ricchetti, who served as counselor to the president for all four years of Biden’s term, was described as ‘combative and defensive’ during his voluntary meeting, a source familiar with the sitdown told Fox News Digital.

The source described Ricchetti as defiant in the face of doubts about Biden’s mental acuity, though he ‘admitted that they all knew President Biden’s age was an issue and were dealing with it as a political matter,’ they said.

‘Mr. Ricchetti stated that he believed President Biden had the ability to be president and that he was performing the capacity of president every day. He believes that Joe Biden is capable to being president today, and that he could have won in 2024,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

Ricchetti, a longtime Democratic operative and lobbyist, first began working for Biden in March 2012 when he was appointed counselor to the vice president under former President Barack Obama. He was elevated to be Biden’s chief of staff in December 2013.

He touted his closeness to Biden over the last 13 years, the source said, and described having personal relationships with former first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden as well.

Ricchetti’s own children were also close to the White House during Biden’s tenure – at least three of them had jobs in the Democratic administration at some point.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Ricchetti is the seventh ex-Biden aide to come in, but just the fourth to appear on voluntary terms. Former White House doctor Kevin O’Connor and former White House aides Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal all pleaded the Fifth Amendment to avoid answering questions.

Ricchetti told investigators that he was not involved in O’Connor’s physical evaluation letters for Biden, ‘but he did have conversations with senior staff on how to communicate and present President Biden’s physical evaluation letters,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

He also defended Biden’s frequent gaffes, describing them as ‘common mistakes’ that anyone could make, the source said.

‘He said the frequency of these mistakes have not increased since Joe Biden was vice president,’ the source said.

The majority of questioning during the eight-hour session came from Republicans – the source said Democrats frequently attempted to change the topic to discuss President Donald Trump.

Ricchetti said nothing to reporters when leaving the meeting on Wednesday evening.

No lawmakers were present for the sitdown, as is usually the case with such transcribed interviews.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ricchetti’s attorney for comment but did not hear back by press time.

If you haven’t heard the name Sydney Sweeney before, odds are you definitely know her name now if you consume any news at all. American Eagle featured the actress in their new ad campaign that kicked off last week, and liberal women lost their ever loving minds. 

What triggered their spiral this time? Sydney has ‘good genes’ and she’s wearing ‘jeans.’

Outrageous, I know.

This good genes/jeans word play game, well it’s a whole lot of Nazi propaganda with some racism thrown in and linked to eugenics. 

If you’re not a White liberal woman, I’ll try to simplify. In liberal math, good genes + jeans = Nazi. 

I know, that wasn’t on our flashcards growing up. 

The next time you compliment a friend on her looks, resist the urge to mention good genes. Sally down the street will think you’re calling her a Nazi, when really you just want to know what face cream she’s using.

If the good genes/jeans word play were a clue on ‘Jeopardy!’ liberals would answer: ‘I’ll take Sydney Sweeney is a Nazi for $1,000, with a side of eugenics and white supremacy.’ 

Let’s ask the politically incorrect elephant in the room question — If you’re putting a large chunk of money behind an ad to sell jeans targeted at Gen Z, are you going to put someone with good genes or bad genes in front of the camera?

To quote ‘The Godfather’ — ‘It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.’ 

It also doesn’t surprise me that the perpetually outraged liberal and mostly women who have piled on over this campaign seem to ignore one more fact. According to Fox News, ‘100 percent of net proceeds from Sweeney’s ‘Sydney Jean’ – which is embroidered with a butterfly to represent domestic violence awareness – will be donated to Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that provides free and confidential text-based mental health support and crisis intervention.’ That sure doesn’t sound like Nazis and eugenics to me.

This week, ‘Good Morning America’ (GMA) didn’t miss the chance to showcase just how unserious they are by jumping on the jean — or gene — meltdown.

Maybe GMA gambled on their viewers not having that first cup of coffee yet, so they wouldn’t notice their fuzzy Nazi math. Is it any wonder that Americans’ trust in the media is at its lowest in more than five decades, according to a Gallup poll?

Going back to the vault, circa 1980, Brooke Shields did a Calvin Klein jeans ad with the same American Eagle/Sydney Sweeney ad vibe. ‘Genes’ and ‘jeans’ were used interchangeably, as well as phrases like ‘natural selection’ and ‘survival of the fittest.’

GMA was around back then, but I don’t recall co-host Joan Lunden doing a Nazi propaganda segment calling out Brooke Shields or Calvin Klein. Then again, that was when history was still being taught in school. 

Ironically, the eugenics trigger is the greatest self-own for White liberal elites, whose holy grail is abortion on demand — anytime, any place, any reason. Legalized abortion has long been one of the most effective ways to reduce populations who are deemed less than.

The White liberal class is largely all in. 

In 2018, then-Pope Francis said, ‘I have heard that it’s fashionable, or at least usual, that when in the first months of pregnancy they do studies to see if the child is healthy or has something, the first offer is: let’s send it away, I say this with pain. In the last century, the whole world was scandalized about what the Nazis did to purify the race. Today we do the same, but now with white gloves.’

If you’re a woman who’s ever been pregnant, or if you’re the dad supporting the woman, you know doctors highly encourage having screenings for chromosomal disorders such as Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18. They don’t do this because they can cure these chromosomal disorders in utero. They push these tests so you can eliminate the ‘less than perfect problem.’ 

If only these same liberal women were as upset about the fate of unborn babies as they are about jeans. 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the fact that American Eagle has ‘American’ in its name makes it obvious they’re Nazis. Thankfully, self-appointed experts have the freedom to warn us all from a non-American platform like X.

This week is one of those times I’m grateful to be spending the end of the summer in the South, where sanity tends to rule the day. If I were home — where I’m outnumbered by the White liberal outrage class by about 50-1 — I’m quite confident that between their pique rage hours of Starbucks and Chardonnay, I’d be on the receiving end of the Sydney Sweeney faux fury. 

These people need a time-out — away from all cameras and keyboards … preferably with a history book.

Never underestimate the left’s ability to overplay their hand. They are screamers, but when they scream, conservatives are the ones who quietly act. Think Bud Light.

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey likes to say the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so it’s no surprise that American Eagle’s stock is up more than 15% since the campaign’s rollout last week. 

I’ll be among those contributing to the rise of American Eagle’s stock when I take my girls back to school shopping. Spending my money somewhere that has the left spiraling over an imaginary offense — sign me up. 

Sydney Sweeney may have good genes, but the screamers may be the ad American Eagle never knew it needed. 

It’s back to school season, and the silent actors are shopping loudly.

President Donald Trump hammered back at former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s warnings about war with the United States, telling the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council to ‘watch his words.’ 

‘I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,’ Trump wrote on TRUTH Social at midnight Thursday. ‘We have done very little business with India, their Tariffs are too high, among the highest in the World. Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way, and tell Medvedev, the failed former President of Russia, who thinks he’s still President, to watch his words. He’s entering very dangerous territory!’

In response to Trump’s post, Medvedev referenced Russia’s ‘Dead Hand’ – the Cold War-era automated nuclear retaliation system developed by the Soviet Union. 

‘If a few words from a former Russian president provoke such a nervous reaction from the supposedly mighty President of the United States, then clearly Russia is in the right – and will continue on its chosen path,’ Medvedev wrote on Telegram. 

‘And as for all that talk about the ‘dead economies’ of India and Russia, or about ‘venturing into dangerous territory’ – well, maybe he should rewatch some of his favorite zombie movies,’ he added. ‘And also remember just how dangerous the supposedly mythical ‘Dead Hand’ system can be.’ 

In theory, the ‘Dead Hand,’ described by the West during the 1980s as a Russian doomsday device, is meant to guarantee a massive retaliatory nuclear strike even if Moscow’s leadership is destroyed or incapacitated. 

While in Scotland on Monday, Trump warned during public remarks that Russian President Vladimir Putin had 10 or 12 days to reach a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, shortening a previous 50-day deadline he issued earlier this month. If Russia does not, Trump promised more ‘sanctions, tariffs, and maybe secondary tariffs’ against Moscow and the purchasers of Russian goods and energy. He lamented that repeated talks with Putin have resulted in little progress toward peace. 

‘Trump’s playing the ultimatum game with Russia: 50 days or 10,’ Medvedev complained in a post to X earlier this week. ‘He should remember 2 things: 1. Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran. 2. Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country. Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!’ 

Trump on Wednesday announced a 25% tariff on imports from India – one of the biggest consumers of Russian oil, next to China – starting on Aug. 1. The president described India as a ‘friend,’ but slammed the South Asian country’s ‘strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary’ trade barriers. Trump vowed other unspecified ‘penalties’ against India for buying most of its military equipment from Russia and Russian energy ‘at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE.’ 

During an unrelated press conference, Trump noted that India and Russia are founding members of BRICSoriginally formed as a counterweight to Western institutions. 

BRICS is ‘basically a group of countries that are anti-the United States and India is a member of that, if you can believe it. It’s an attack on the dollar. And we’re not going to let anybody attack the dollar,’ Trump said. ‘We have a tremendous deficit.’

In recent days, Medvedev has also shredded the framework of the trade deal Trump reached with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during his recent trip to Scotland. 

Trump has repeatedly communicated that trade deals with other countries would be contingent on foreign policy alignment with the United States. 

For example, after Canada announced it was backing Palestinian statehood amid Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, Trump wrote Thursday, ‘That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.’ 

Trump, meanwhile, on Thursday celebrated this reciprocal tariffs plan after telling reporters on Wednesday that they brought ‘billions’ of dollars into the U.S. economy. 

‘Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again,’ Trump wrote on social media. ‘They were successfully used against the USA for decades and, coupled with really dumb, pathetic, and crooked politicians, we’re having a devastating impact on the future, and even the survival, of our country. Now the tide has completely turned, and America has successfully countered this onslaught of Tariffs used against it.’

‘ONE YEAR AGO, AMERICA WAS A DEAD COUNTRY, NOW IT IS THE ‘HOTTEST’ COUNTRY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!’ Trump added. 

A longtime ally of former President Joe Biden is appearing before House investigators on Thursday, the eighth ex-White House aide to be summoned for Oversight Committee Chair James Comer’s probe.

Michael Donilon served as senior advisor to the president for the entirety of Biden’s four-year term.

He’s now expected to sit down with House Oversight Committee staff for a closed-door transcribed interview that could last several hours.

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating whether Biden’s top White House aides concealed signs of mental decline in the then-president, and if that meant executive actions were signed via autopen without his knowledge.

Donilon will likely be of key interest to investigators, considering his decades-long working relationship with the former president.

He first began working for Biden in 1981 as a strategist, pollster, and media advisor, according to a biography by the Harvard University Institute of Politics, where he was a Spring 2025 fellow.

Biden was serving as a senator from Delaware at the time.

He also served as chief strategist on Biden’s 2020 and 2024 campaigns before Biden dropped his re-election bid in July 2024.

The loyal former aide accused the Democratic Party of melting down earlier this year after top left-wing leaders forced Biden out of the 2024 presidential race over his disastrous debate against current President Donald Trump.

‘Lots of people have terrible debates. Usually the party doesn’t lose its mind, but that’s what happened here. It melted down,’ he said at a Harvard event in February.

It comes after another close former aide, ex-counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, appeared before investigators for his own transcribed interview on Wednesday.

Like Ricchetti, Donilon is appearing on voluntary terms – the fifth ex-Biden aide to do so.

Three of the previous six Biden administration officials who appeared before the House Oversight Committee did so under subpoena. Ex-White House physician Kevin O’Connor, as well as former advisors Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal, all pleaded the Fifth Amendment during their compulsory sit-downs.

But the four voluntary transcribed interviews that have occurred so far have lasted more than five hours, as staff for both Democrats and Republicans take turns in rounds of questioning.

‘You were reportedly responsible for erecting a wall between the former president and senators ‘to shield Biden from bad information.’ Recently, during an event at Harvard University, you displayed your willingness to speak about the former president’s cognition but you reportedly ‘denounced claims that the president’s acuity and judgment declined,” Comer wrote in a June letter to Donilon asking him to appear.

‘The scope of your responsibilities—both official and otherwise—and personal interactions within the Oval Office cannot go without investigation. If White House staff carried out a strategy lasting months or even years to hide the chief executive’s condition—or to perform his duties—Congress may need to consider a legislative response.’

Two U.S. judges in separate federal courts scrapped their rulings last week after lawyers alerted them to filings that contained inaccurate case details or seemingly ‘hallucinated’ quotes that misquoted cited cases — the latest in a string of errors that suggest the growing use of artificial intelligence in legal research and submissions.

In New Jersey, U.S. District Judge Julien Neals withdrew his denial of a motion to dismiss a securities fraud case after lawyers revealed the decision relied on filings with ‘pervasive and material inaccuracies.’

The filing pointed to ‘numerous instances’ of made-up quotes submitted by attorneys, as well as three separate instances when the outcome of lawsuits appeared to have been mistaken, prompting Neals to withdraw his decision.

In Mississippi, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate replaced his original July 20 temporary restraining order that paused enforcement of a state law blocking diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools after lawyers notified the judge of serious errors submitted by the attorney. 

They informed the court that the decision ‘relie[d] upon the purported declaration testimony of four individuals whose declarations do not appear in the record for this case.’ 

Wingate subsequently issued a new ruling, though lawyers for the state have asked his original order to be placed back on the docket. 

‘All parties are entitled to a complete and accurate record of all papers filed and orders entered in this action, for the benefit of the Fifth Circuit’s appellate review,’ the state attorney general said in a filing. 

A person familiar with Wingate’s temporary order in Mississippi confirmed to Fox News Digital that the erroneous filing submitted to the court had used AI, adding that they had ‘never seen anything like this’ in court before.

Neither the judges’ office nor the lawyers in question immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment on the retracted New Jersey order, first reported by Reuters. It was not immediately clear if AI was the reason for that erroneous court submission in that case.

However, the errors in both cases — which were quickly flagged by attorneys, and prompted the judges to take action to revise or redact their orders — come as the use of generative AI continues to skyrocket in almost every profession, especially among younger workers. 

In at least one of the cases, the errors bear similarities to AI-style inaccuracies, which include the use of ‘ghost’ or ‘hallucinated’ quotes being used in filings, citing incorrect or even nonexistent cases.

For bar-admitted attorneys, these erroneous court submissions are not taken lightly. Lawyers are responsible for the veracity of all information included in court filings, including if it includes AI-generated materials, according to guidance from the American Bar Association.

In May, a federal judge in California slapped law firms with $31,000 in sanctions for using AI in court filings, saying at the time that ‘no reasonably competent attorney should out-source research and writing to this technology — particularly without any attempt to verify the accuracy of that material.’

Last week, a federal judge in Alabama sanctioned three attorneys for submitting erroneous court filings that were later revealed to have been generated by ChatGPT.

Among other things, the filings in question included the use of the AI-generated quote ‘hallucinations,’ U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco said in her order, which also referred the lawyers in question to the state bar for further disciplinary proceedings.

‘Fabricating legal authority is serious misconduct that demands a serious sanction,’ she said in the filing.

New data from the Pew Research Center underscores the rise of AI tools among younger users. 

According to a June survey, roughly 34% of U.S. adults say they have used ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot — roughly double the percentage of users who said the same at the same point two years ago, in 2023. 

The share of employed adults who use ChatGPT for work has spiked by a whopping 20 percentage points since June 2023; and among adults under 30, adoption is even more widespread, with a 58% majority saying they have used the chatbot.