Former President Joe Biden is defending his administration’s use of an autopen after President Donald Trump ordered an investigation into what he calls one of the “most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.” The controversy centers on whether key decisions made during Biden’s presidency were properly authorized or whether staffers were masking his alleged cognitive decline by utilizing a mechanical signature device to enact sweeping policies.
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday, attempting to quash speculation over the legitimacy of actions taken under his name.
“This is nothing more than a distraction,” his statement insisted, dismissing the autopen investigation as political theater.
However, Trump’s response was anything but theatrical. In a formal memo, he urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch a full-scale investigation into whether top officials in the Biden White House conspired to wield executive authority without the president’s full cognition or consent.
“The U.S. president has a tremendous amount of power and responsibility through his signature,” Trump wrote. “If Biden’s aides used an autopen to mask his incapacity while enacting radical policies, that would constitute an unconstitutional wielding of executive power.”
Trump’s memo details concerns that Biden’s mechanical signature may have been deployed “across thousands of documents,” from controversial pardons to expansive climate and immigration directives, raising questions about their legal standing.
House Republicans, meanwhile, are escalating their oversight efforts. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has summoned three former senior Biden aides for transcribed interviews and said he is “open” to calling Biden to testify. “This goes beyond political gamesmanship,” Comer told reporters. “If unauthorized individuals were exercising executive power under the cover of Biden’s name, the American people deserve to know.”
This latest controversy comes at a moment when trust in government institutions is already fractured. The use of an autopen by modern presidents is not unprecedented — President Obama used it in 2011 — but the current questions go far deeper, suggesting a potential deliberate attempt to obscure the president’s mental fitness from the public.
Critics argue that Biden’s forceful denial lacks substance and sidesteps legitimate concerns. “This isn’t about a signature — it’s about who was really in charge,” said one GOP aide familiar with the probe. “If Biden can’t point to specific decisions he made and explain them under oath, that’s a problem.”
Whether or not Biden himself appears before lawmakers, the autopen — once a mundane administrative device — has become a symbol of a broader political and legal battle over presidential accountability and transparency.
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“Why should I have to sign a bill myself? That’s too much work and I have more important things to do Being the Big Guy takes a lot of time.”