It is rather sad that a man who gave his life to 50 years of public service in both the Senate and the White House, now diagnosed with what most believe to be terminal prostate cancer, has to spend some of his remaining time refuting baseless conspiracy theories which, while having no tether to truth, do impact perhaps thousands.
During his last days, and as many presidents do, Biden granted perhaps hundreds of clemency actions, issuing preemptive pardons for figures like Gen. Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci, and commuting the sentences of many death row inmates to life in prison. Like many presidents before him, the sheer volume of paper needing signatures at the end of an administration made it necessary for Biden to use an auto-pen to complete the documents. Now, amidst Trump conspiracy theory claims, Biden spoke sternly to The New York Times, saying that he personally approved every action issued.
In an article entitled “Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen” the former president makes clear that he personally approved every document. As Grok summarizes the article:
Biden’s senior aides relayed his verbal instructions to assistants, who emailed staff secretary Stefanie Feldman to manage the autopen. This chain of command has drawn scrutiny, with Republicans alleging aides acted independently, though no evidence supports this.
Now, this would be rather obvious to anyone at any point in time, after all, the use of an auto-pen was challenged and found to be fully empowered in 2005. But the Republicans are Republicans for a reason. Their conspiracy theory bent led them to go over the moon on this innocuous fact.
Trump and allies, including the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, claim Biden’s autopen use reflects a “conspiracy” to hide his cognitive decline, with Trump calling pardons “void” and suggesting the “real president” was whoever controlled the autopen. The House Oversight Committee, led by James Comer, is probing Biden’s aides, demanding sworn testimony.
Yeah. Well, it is better for Comer to spend his time chasing this rather obvious absolutely legal and authorized practice than others that may be harder to prove as baseless. But with the “Big Beautiful Bill” now a thing of the past, Republicans have to gear up for what they do best, investigating baseless sh*t. We should be shocked if they don’t resurrect a Benghazi committee.
It is, however, fantastic that Biden speaks to the issue now. We don’t know if President Biden has six years remaining in his incredible life or six weeks. Thus it is that he should come out strongly against this conspiracy theory, and an article in The New York Times is a good start. Not that I would pretend to be at a point to out-think the former president but I see no harm – and a lot of good, if Biden signed some affidavits for members of the House and Senate, stating that he personally authorized all those clemency actions, and specifically mention Trump’s biggest targets, which include Fauci, Milley, and all members of the January 6th Committee.
Trump’s followers are well-known for their conspiracy-theory penchant. They cannot stand it when there is clear evidence to blast holes in their favorite tales. It is even more important of late, when the Trump administration will be motivated to throw raw meat to the base to divert attention away from the Epstein matter. Biden’s bite couldn’t have been timed better.
There are real-world consequences riding on all this. There is not a single person in the country who would trade places with Liz Cheney or Mark Milley right now, not with Trump and his newly discovered arrest powers riding parallel to the MAGA House members ready to investigate ghosts.
The only thing left to say is to beg the former president to spend more time protecting loyal Americans like Fauci, who did nothing more than their job in saving lives during the COVID tragedy. Of course, none of us know how much time Biden has, so we should thank him for every minute spent eviscerating the Right’s favorite conspiracy theories.
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