Who was in charge?
The question is more than just a historical curiosity. Official acts taken by the Office of the President may not have been legal if aides to President Biden were aware he was incapable of making decisions and acted in his name anyway.
Unless there is some documentary evidence like memos, reports, personal emails, and results of mental exams, the cognitive status of Joe Biden during those last 100 days in office will be a matter of opinion. That means that it's doubtful any of his actions, questionable though they may be, will be successfully challenged.
Donald Trump has tasked his Department of Justice and Office of White House Counsel with getting to the bottom of who was making executive decisions in the final months of the Biden presidency. This includes more than 2,500 pardons Biden allegedly authorized on January 17, 2025.
In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority. This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. 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 by saying, “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.”
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That claim is being put to the test by Rep. James Comer's Oversight Committee, which is also investigating the question of who was in charge of the United States government during the last few months of Biden's presidency.
“Key decisions made in the final days of the Biden presidency, including using autopens to issue blanket pardons for the Biden Crime Family, must be fully examined. There are serious concerns that President Biden lacked the mental capacity to authorize those actions," Comer said in a statement in May.
The use of the autopen is not the question. Presidents have been using the mechanical signing device since Lyndon Johnson's time. The only way that the use of the autopen can be challenged is “If the president doesn’t know that something was done, then it’s not a valid official act," according to University of Pennsylvania constitutional law professor Kermit Roosevelt.
Trump's Presidential Memoranda suggest exactly that.
Notwithstanding these well-documented issues, the White House issued over 1,200 Presidential documents, appointed 235 judges to the Federal bench, and issued more pardons and commutations than any administration in United States history. For instance, just 2 days before Christmas in 2024, the White House announced that Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 most vile and monstrous criminals on Federal death row, including several child killers and mass murderers.
Although the authority to take these executive actions, along with many others, is constitutionally committed to the President, there are serious doubts as to the decision making process and even the degree of Biden’s awareness of these actions being taken in his name.
It's unlikely that much documentary evidence of the president's severe mental deficiency survived. But there should be White House emails, unpublished physician examinations, and the personal papers of aides who want to write their own memoirs and were arrogant enough to hang on to evidence of their cover-up.
It may be difficult to find the truth. But the American people are owed an explanation for actions taken by unelected aides.
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