U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into Joe Biden’s actions during his presidency.
He claims Biden’s aides hid his “cognitive decline” and used an autopen to sign official documents without his direct approval.
In a memo released Wednesday, the White House alleged that critical decisions were carried out without Biden’s direct involvement.
Highlights
- Trump has ordered an investigation into Biden’s use of an autopen to sign official documents.
- The White House memo alleges that Biden’s aides made key decisions without his involvement, while hiding his "cognitive decline."
- Biden denied the claims, calling them “ridiculous and false.”
Donald Trump claimed Joe Biden’s aides used an autopen to sign important documents without the president’s approval
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
Trump believes this could make many of Biden’s executive actions legally invalid.
“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” the White House wrote in the memo.
“The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Biden responded in a statement Wednesday night: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington to lead the inquiry.
The move signals a new phase in Trump’s efforts to challenge the legitimacy of Biden’s presidency. Trump continues to claim the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The use of the autopen—a machine that replicates a person’s signature—is not new in presidential history. Past presidents, including Barack Obama, have used it.
A 2005 legal opinion from the Justice Department stated that the president does not have to physically sign a bill for it to become law.
Trump himself acknowledged using the autopen while in office but said it was “only for unimportant papers.”
He now argues Biden’s team may have used it inappropriately to carry out major executive actions without Biden’s direct involvement.
Trump also criticized the use of the autopen in Biden’s final acts in office, including pardons for his family members and congressional committee members who investigated the January 6 Capitol riot.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, is also pushing forward with his own inquiry.
Comer sent interview requests to five senior Biden aides, including Ron Klain, Anita Dunn, Bruce Reed, Mike Donilon, and Steve Ricchetti.
He said they may have been involved in concealing Biden’s cognitive condition.
“These five former senior advisors were eyewitnesses to President Biden’s condition and operations within the Biden White House,” Comer said in a statement.
“They must appear before the House Oversight Committee and provide truthful answers about President Biden’s cognitive state and who was calling the shots,” he added.
Comer referenced the book Original Sin by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, where they wrote, “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Biden and members of his family have denied the book’s claims.
Naomi Biden, the former president’s granddaughter, dismissed the book’s claims as “political fairy smut.”
Biden’s mental sharpness became a major issue during his final year in office. A poor debate performance against Trump last summer—in which Biden struggled to articulate key points and lost his train of thought—led to increased scrutiny and ultimately his withdrawal from the 2024 race.
Biden denied Trump’s claims, calling them “ridiculous and false”
Image credits: The White House/Flickr
Vice President Kamala Harris replaced him on the Democratic ticket but lost the election to Trump.
Democrats say the new investigations are politically motivated.
Rep. Jamie Raskin said, “Chairman Comer had his big shot in the last Congress to impeach Joe Biden and it was, of course, a spectacular flop. And now he’s just living off of a spent dream. It’s over. And he should give up the whole thing.”
Republicans are eager to pursue the investigation.
“The American people didn’t elect a bureaucracy to run the country,” said Texas Rep. Brandon Gill. “I think that the American people deserve to know the truth and they want to know the truth of what happened.”
Biden recently revealed he has an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. In response, Trump accused those closest to him—including former First Lady Jill Biden—of having known about the diagnosis long before it was made public.