Hold onto your hats, folks—House Republicans are gearing up to drop a bombshell report on former President Joe Biden’s alleged misuse of the presidential autopen, raising serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the White House.
At the heart of this unfolding drama, GOP lawmakers claim Biden’s staff may have overstepped by using the autopen to push through executive actions without his full awareness, while Democrats and legal experts push back hard against what they call baseless accusations, Newsmax reported.
Let’s rewind a bit: the House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has been digging into concerns about Biden’s mental sharpness during his time in office, especially as he aged visibly over his term.
Interviews with over a dozen former senior Biden administration officials have wrapped up, with the committee zeroing in on whether the president’s apparent frailty—noted by some aides as requiring slower schedules and more meetings—opened the door to unauthorized actions.
While specific examples of autopen misuse haven’t been revealed yet, Comer promises the upcoming report will lay out the details, painting what he calls a historic scandal.
"The House Oversight Committee has uncovered how the Biden Autopen Presidency ranks among the greatest scandals in U.S. history," Comer declared in a statement. Well, that’s a bold claim, but without the hard evidence just yet, it’s tough not to wonder if this is more sizzle than steak.
Biden himself isn’t taking this lying down, adamantly rejecting any notion that he was out of the loop on his administration’s decisions.
"Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency," Biden stated over the summer. If only saying it made it so—questions linger when aides like former chief of staff Jeff Zients admit decision-making slowed over time.
Longtime adviser Steve Ricchetti also stepped up to bat, denying any shadowy plots among senior staff to hide Biden’s condition or seize control of policy.
Yet, not everyone was eager to talk—key figures like former physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor and others invoked their Fifth Amendment rights, refusing to answer the committee’s probing questions.
Even as some officials acknowledged discussions about a possible cognitive exam for Biden, who was 82 when he left office, they firmly denied any conspiracy to usurp presidential authority.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee aren’t buying the GOP narrative, dismissing the investigation as a distraction from alleged misconduct in the Trump administration—a classic case of pointing fingers instead of addressing the issue at hand.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers are turning up the heat, arguing that any misuse of the autopen could invalidate Biden-era executive actions, pardons, and even laws, with Trump ordering the Justice Department to investigate.
A Trump White House memo to Attorney General Pam Bondi called unauthorized autopen use an "unconstitutional wielding of the power of the presidency," warning of legal ripple effects. That’s a spicy take, but legal experts caution it’s untested ground—and could boomerang on Trump’s own record of autopen use.
Republicans insist Biden’s case is unique, pushing for criminal prosecution of any former staffers found to have abused the autopen, while critics warn such moves could destabilize policies across multiple administrations. It’s a high-stakes game, and one wonders if the cure might be worse than the disease for conservatives who value stability.
