(The Hill) — Former President Biden sounded off at President Trump and Republicans in Congress over their claims that aides acted without Biden’s knowledge in granting presidential pardons and clemency with the use of an autopen.
“They’re liars. They know it,” Biden told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday, asked about claims he was incapacitated near the end of his presidency and unaware of decisions being made on his behalf.
“I made every single one of those” decisions about clemency, he added.
During his final days in the White House, Biden issued three tranches of commutations: preventing hundreds of people in home confinement since the COVID pandemic from returning to prison, reducing sentences of hundreds of non-violent drug offenders and turning death sentences to life without parole for 37 of 40 inmates on death row.
Even more controversial was his decision to grant pre-emptive pardons to members of his family and high-profile conservative targets including former White House COVID advisor Anthony Fauci and former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley.
Biden told the Times he used an autopen to sign the warrants, “Because there were a lot of them.”
“The autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump. But the point is that, you know, we’re talking about a whole lot of people,” he said.
The former president accused Republicans of stirring up the autopen controversy as a distraction.
“They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing. The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else. And this is a — I think that’s what this is about,” he said.
Both the Department of Justice and GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee have opened investigations into Biden’s use of the autopen and what they allege was a coordinated cover-up of his mental decline by aides and administration officials.
Biden’s White House doctor, Kevin O’Connor, declined to answer questions during a deposition with the Oversight panel last week, citing physician-patient privilege and constitutional rights against self-incrimination.
Committee Chair James Comer tore into O’Conner over his refusal to answer questions.
“It’s clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment,” he said.
Trump in early June ordered an investigation into actions taken by Biden while in office, citing questions about Biden‘s cognitive state toward the end of his White House term.
Trump’s order cited Biden’s appointment of more than 200 judges to the federal bench, the issuance of thousands of acts of clemency and the issuance of more than 1,000 presidential documents during his term.
Biden sharply pushed back in a statement at the time.
“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,” he said.
Editor’s note: U.S. Senator John Coryn (R-Texas) statement attached below reacting to former President Joe Biden’s assertion that he gave his staff approval to use the autopen on almost 4,000 pardons and grants of clemency at the end of his term, including pardons of his family members:
“It is clear the Biden inner circle made conscious efforts to conceal the former President’s cognitive decline and, in the final hours of his term, used his signature to authorize thousands of pardons,” said Sen. Cornyn. “Putting Joe Biden on the phone to read off printed talking points to a reporter does nothing to quell concerns that our Constitution was violated or dispute claims that this was an all-out conspiracy by the Left. Rather, it confirms his aides are using him as a pawn to once again mislead the American people and avoid the consequences of their own actions.”
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