Finally, Biden’s handlers are testifying under oath before Congress. The primary questions at hand: was Joe Biden so senile he had no idea documents were signed by autopen in his name? Who was authorizing the use of the autopen?
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson answered the first question. Johnson asked Biden why he issued an executive order cutting off liquid natural gas exports to our European allies.
Biden was stunned, Johnson said.
“I didn’t do that,” the president said, according to Johnson.
“Sir, you paused it, I know. I have the export terminals in my state. I talked to those people in my state, I’ve talked to those people this morning, this is doing massive damage to our economy, national security,” Johnson said he told the commander-in-chief.
Biden continued to deny that he froze the exports — and then remembered he signed the executive order, which he said was simply to study the effects of the fuel.
“I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, ‘We are in serious trouble—who is running the country?’” Johnson said.
“Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know,” he said.
Americans know that wasn’t just a momentary memory glitch.
Neera Tanden was a top Biden aide, one known to exercise wide authority and to have substantial influence on Biden. Her recent congressional testimony was partially revealing:
According to a source familiar with her testimony, Tanden told lawmakers she had been “authorized to direct autopen signatures but was unaware of who in the president’s inner circle was giving her final clearance,” Fox News reported. Tanden said that after her promotion to director of the Domestic Policy Council in May 2023, she no longer had oversight of the autopen’s use.
We now know that one multiple occasions when the autopen was used on significant documents, Biden was present and presumably capable of signing his name. That Tanden was “authorized to direct autopen signatures” but had no idea who was giving the orders is, if true, disconcerting. There are two obvious possibilities: she’s lying about that, or the Biden White House was so chaotic matters like authorizing the signing of documents with the force of law was a casual matter. It could certainly be both, but her testimony suggests it was largely the former:
Tanden testified that to get approval for the use of autopen signatures she would send decision memos to members of Biden’s inner circle. However, she added that she was not aware of what actions or approvals took place between the time she sent the decision memo and the time she received it back with the necessary approval.
And who were these inner circle members? Which of them gave her that “necessary approval?” Was it given face-to-face, by e-mail, through third parties? Somone had to give those approvals, so where are the memos and replies? While we certainly don’t have the entirety of Tanden’s testimony, how is it possible she has no idea who approved use of the autopen? Were no records kept? Were there tousands of nameless aides in the White House? Why don’t we know that on “X” date, “Y” official approved the autopen signature on “Z” executive order or pardon? Even if no such records were kept, which seems unlikely even for Biden’s handlers, Tanden should at least be able to say which supposedly higher-ranking aides—or Biden himself—told her to sign at least some momentous documents.
As to Biden’s mental acuity, Tanden was apparently oblivious:
When Tanden was asked whether she ever discussed Biden’s health or his fitness to serve as president during her time as a top aide, including during the period of the former president’s widely criticized debate performance last summer, Tanden said she did not. Lawmakers laid out a list of names of officials she could have potentially discussed it with, and Tanden said “no” to each name, according to a source familiar with her closed-door testimony.
Graphic: X/C-Span screenshot.
As Dr. Evil would say: riiiiiiiight. She’s a top Biden aide and no one in the White House discussed Biden’s horrific debate performance with her? No one ever spoke with her about his mental decline, despite widespread public admissions that aides kept Biden isolated, surrounded him when he was walking in public to keep him from falling down and to keep the public from seeing his increasingly robotic gait, called a lid early virtually every day, and kept him isolated even from his cabinet?
It seems clear investigators have laid more than enough opportunities to expose potential perjury. All it will take is one former White House aide caught in their own crimes to tell the truth. Tanden had her chance to uphold “our democracy.” It seems possible she chose otherwise.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.