House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) suggested he might subpoena former President Joe Biden, former first lady Jill Biden, and former chief of staff Ron Klain as the House investigates the former president’s autopen use.
Five former Biden aides are facing subpoena threats ahead of a Thursday evening deadline to comply with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the former president’s use of an autopen, a machine that allows anyone to duplicate the president’s signature with their authorization. The committee will determine whether Biden was, as Comer put it on Fox News’s Hannity on Wednesday night, “mentally sharp” enough to authorize the use of the device. Biden has come under increased scrutiny for his declining mental acuity during his time in office.
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“In light of the Hur report and the tapes that were released, and what a cognitive mess Joe was, would it even be worthwhile to bring him in?” host Sean Hannity asked Comer. “I mean, I would have to argue: probably not.”
“Well, I mean, again, we’re going to see who was giving the directive to sign these. If everyone says it was Joe Biden, then I’m certainly open to bringing him in. It’s harder to bring in a former president. The Democrats tried to bring Donald Trump into some things,” Comer said. “But at any rate, wherever the trail leads is where we’re going to bring them in. And look, I would love to ask Joe Biden a lot of questions, but right now, we’re starting with the staffers who are operating the autopen.”
“Obviously, we believe that some of the names, like the chief of staff and perhaps the first lady, were involved in a lot of the decision-making. If that’s where the trail leads, then we’ll bring them in as well,” Comer said.
Thursday morning, Comer again implied that Jill Biden and Klain were heavily involved in the “decision-making process” and that staff can sometimes go to great lengths to protect former superiors.
“Let’s start with the bottom, and let’s see what the decision-making process was. Are the people at the bottom going to go down on the ship to protect the higher-level people, the Klains and Jill Bidens and those people that most of us believe were actually calling shots?” Comer asked on Fox News’s Faulkner Focus.
While on Fox Business’s Varney & Co. earlier Wednesday, Comer said the autopen could have been abused in its use.
“There is more evidence coming out by the second that would prove that Joe Biden wasn’t the one making decisions during the last 100 days of his administration,” Comer said.
At the center of the investigation are the record-breaking pardons Biden issued during his final days in office. Biden set a record in presidential pardons, commutations, and clemencies for over 4,200 people.