Former Biden White House spokesperson Ian Sams, who aggressively defended the aging president as “sharp” and vigorous behind the scenes following his fumbling 2024 debate performance, privately admitted to House investigators that he rarely met the 46th president in person.
On July 2, 2024, five days after the disastrous debate, Sams went on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” and argued that the 46th president’s repudiation of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision illustrated how Biden was keeping up behind the scenes, despite public fears about his cognition.
“Yesterday, when he [gave] the speech about what the Supreme Court did, he drove that speech,” Sams raved to host Nicolle Wallace.
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“That’s the President Biden that so many of us experience every single day, who’s asking the tough questions so that we as staff can be sharp to do our job best for the American people.”
“When I deal with him,” Sams reiterated at another point in the interview in reference to Biden, “he is sharp. He’s asking tough questions.”
Sams’ staunch defense of Biden went viral due to its contrast with the feeble display the Democrat had put on during the CNN debate against Donald Trump.
WH goes on MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace to hit back at this NYT story.
Ian Sams: “When I deal with him, he’s sharp. He’s asking tough questions”
Wallace responds: “You don’t have to persuade me. I sat across from him exactly a year ago [to interview him]” https://t.co/EuhrVMfFUa pic.twitter.com/McvyC5XIxt
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) July 2, 2024
However, Sams told a different story about his dealings with the commander in chief during his August interview, the transcript of which was released Tuesday.
“The first time I met President Biden personally was in a meeting, maybe in early 2024,” he conceded to House Oversight Committee investigators. “…I interacted with him pretty infrequently.”
When pressed for specifics, Sams said he dealt with Biden directly “three or four times” during his two-plus years in the administration, including two in-person meetings, one phone meeting, and one virtual meeting.
Sams stood by his July 2024 description of Biden on MSNBC and brushed off concerns that his comments were misleading.
“I think it was pretty direct and honest and said that when I do deal with him he’s, you know, sharp and he was asking incisive questions during my meetings with him,” he insisted.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) described Sams’ testimony as “one of the most shocking” he had heard from former Biden aides who answered questions for the panel’s autopen probe.
Sams had been the White House point person responding to Comer’s investigations into the Biden family’s foreign business interests after Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives following the 2022 midterms.
“He was LYING to the American people to cover up for Biden’s decline,” the Oversight Committee’s X account jabbed on Wednesday alongside a mashup of Sams’ seemingly contradictory claims.
WATCH: Ian Sams, one of Joe Biden’s spokespersons, met with him only TWICE in over TWO YEARS.
Then he would go on live television and say he interacted with him EVERY SINGLE DAY.
He was LYING to the American people to cover up for Biden’s decline. pic.twitter.com/9BDXKWhyUw
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 29, 2025
