{"id":44733,"date":"2025-07-13T20:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44733"},"modified":"2025-07-13T21:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T02:56:18","slug":"biden-hits-back-at-trump-gop-over-autopen-criticism-theyre-liars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=44733","title":{"rendered":"Biden hits back at Trump, GOP over autopen criticism: \u2018They\u2019re liars\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former President Biden\u2002<\/u><\/a>sounded off at President Trump and Republicans in Congress over their claims that aides acted without Biden\u2019s knowledge in granting presidential pardons and clemency with the use of an autopen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re liars. They know it,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI made every single one of those\u201d decisions about clemency, he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2002<\/u><\/a>and former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden told the Times he used an autopen to sign the warrants, \u201cBecause there were a lot of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump. But the point is that, you know, we\u2019re talking about a whole lot of people,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former president accused Republicans of stirring up the autopen controversy as a distraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve lied so consistently about almost everything they\u2019re doing. The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else. And this is a \u2014 I think that\u2019s what this is about,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the Department of Justice and GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee have opened investigations into Biden\u2019s use of the autopen and what they allege was a coordinated cover-up of his mental decline by aides and administration officials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden\u2019s White House doctor, Kevin O\u2019Connor, declined to answer questions<\/u><\/a> during a deposition with the Oversight panel last week, citing physician-patient privilege and constitutional rights against self-incrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Committee Chair James Comer\u2002<\/u><\/a>tore into O\u2019Conner over his refusal to answer questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden\u2019s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O\u2019Connor, Biden\u2019s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump in early June ordered an investigation into actions taken by Biden while in office, citing questions about Biden\u2018s cognitive state toward the end of his White House term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s order cited Biden\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden sharply pushed back in a statement at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet 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\u2019t is ridiculous and false,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former President Biden\u2002sounded off at President Trump and Republicans in Congress over their claims that aides acted without Biden\u2019s knowledge in granting presidential pardons and clemency with the use of an autopen. \u201cThey\u2019re liars. They know it,\u201d Biden told The New York Times in an interview published Sunday, asked about claims he was incapacitated near the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":44734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33943,1169,33944,1230],"class_list":["post-44733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-autopen","tag-biden","tag-liar","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44735,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44733\/revisions\/44735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}