Former President Joe Biden’s lame attempt to defend his last-minute pardons only confirms what everyone suspected: His staff ran wild with his autopen.
What else did they control?
In an interview with The New York Times, Biden claimed he “made every decision” himself when it came to the 25 autopen-signed pardon and commutation warrants that his White House issued in the final months of his presidency.
But then he admitted that he didn’t explicitly agree to each and every clemency winner.
His excuse: “We’re talking about a whole lot of people.”
Which, actually, is a big part of the problem: Why so many?
The warrants commuted the sentences of about 4,000 inmates in total, including five child killers and several mass murderers on death row.
Plus, he handed out a few dozen full pardons, most notoriously to his own legally compromised family members.
Biden himself admits he wasn’t fully hands-on when it came to who was getting sprung or protected from future prosecution.
Exactly how involved was he? Not very: The Biden White House had a “process” for approving the pardons that seemed to only minimally include him.
Biden would supposedly give oral approval for the terms of the warrants. Then assistants who weren’t even in those meetings would write up “blurbs” with descriptions of the president’s approval, which would get sent to Biden’s staff secretary, who’d then use autopen to sign off.
That’s a heckuva lot of power in the hands of Biden’s staff.
It gives credence to President Donald Trump’s claim that Biden’s “aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal [his] cognitive decline.”
That charge is being investigated by the Justice Department and Congress, but getting anyone in Biden’s inner circle to testify has been an exercise in pulling teeth.
Last week, Joe’s former doctor, Kevin O’Connor, pleaded the Fifth instead of answering a single question about the former president’s health.
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Biden didn’t seem bothered by his staff’s liberal use of autopen, but he has a stake in pushing the narrative that he was A-OK with the setup.
What’s left of his battered legacy (and his pride) would be further tarnished by an admission that he wasn’t fully in charge.
Joe clearly meant to take the heat off by telling the Times he was one making the decisions.
But his own words put the lie to that.
All they do is confirm that the GOPers trying to get answers about who was running the country under Biden are on the right track.