Investigation will fuel GOP campaign to discredit ex-president and undo pardons and orders issued at end of his term<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into Joe Biden\u2019s actions as president, alleging that top aides masked his predecessor\u2019s \u2018cognitive decline\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This investigation will build on a Republican-led campaign to discredit the former president and overturn some of his executive actions, including presidential pardons and federal rules issued toward the end of his term in office, that\u2019s already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GOP lawmakers sought testimony from five of Biden\u2019s top aides and advisers Wednesday<\/a>, including his first chief of staff, about his \u201cmental and physical faculties\u201d. The House oversight committee, headed by the Republican representative James Comer of Kentucky is already speaking to four others,<\/a> according to reports from CBS News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A separate inquiry was launched Tuesday by Ed Martin, a Department of Justice attorney, into clemencies Biden issued in his final days in office to family members as well as death row inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s cognitive abilities during his presidency had been a Republican talking point for several years andTrump has frequently suggested that some of Biden\u2019s actions are invalid because his aides were usurping presidential authority to cover up what Trump claims is Biden\u2019s cognitive decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden, 82, is not significantly older than Trump who turns 79 later this month, and has also faced questions about cognitive decline. But scrutiny about Biden\u2019s health intensified following a disastrous debate performance going into the 2024 election, which ultimately led to him dropping out of the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Concerns about his age and mental acuity have come into sharper focus in recent weeks following the disclosure that the former president was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Reporting in numerous US media outlets and a recent book co-authored by Jake Tapper, a CNN host, have also revealed that top Democrats<\/a> and people in Biden\u2019s inner circle had serious misgivings about his ability to do the duties of president. The book is referenced in an announcement about the House oversight committee\u2019s expanded inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a memo, Trump took aim at Biden\u2019s use of an autopen \u2013 a mechanical device that is used to replicate a person\u2019s authentic signature, that presidents have used for decades \u2013 to sign executive actions. The administration\u2019s investigation will focus on \u201cwho ran the United States while President Biden was in office\u201d, according to the memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cThe American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden\u2019s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump directed Pam Bondi, the attorney general, Pam Bondi and David Warrington, the White House counsel, David Warrington to handle the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats, meanwhile, have called the investigations a distraction from issues with current administration. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning the former president Bill Clinton said he believed Biden was mentally sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe only concern I thought he had to deal with was: \u2018Could anybody do that job until they were 86?\u2019\u201d Clinton said. \u201cWe\u2019d had several long talks. I had never seen him and walked away thinking \u2018He can\u2019t do this anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n