Staff Reports
In the newest twist of presidential tales, former President Joe Biden is making headlines once again. This time, it’s not about his policies or political rallies, but rather a curious case of clemency and autopen use, something that countless citizens must have had to Google to understand. In a recent interview with “The New York Times,” the former president claims he was at the helm of every clemency decision during his time in office. As discussions swirl around his past mental acuity, Biden insists he had control over these pardons from start to finish, despite the fact that he didn’t individually approve every single name on the pardon list.
Now, let’s cut to the amusing part: Biden assures everyone he made every decision related to clemency categories, which might come as a shock to those who assume that a president’s role is somewhat selective, rather than broadly categorical. It almost feels like saying he painted every brushstroke, except he handed off the detailed work to staff. The juicy detail here is that his team allegedly ran the final paperwork through an autopen, a gadget that signs his name for him—a novel approach to leadership, if nothing else.
This fuzzy procedure raises an obvious question: Are these orally approved, autopen-executed pardons valid? The Constitution remains silent on the requirement for ink-signed pardons, leaving this an open-ended debate. Surely, if Trump’s claims about his oral declassification of documents have credibility, why not extend the courtesy to pardons? Yet, Democrats of yesteryears took issue with Trump’s verbal assurances. It seems like precedent-fueled politics are at play, uncoated with logic but sticky with inconsistency.
Entering the scene like a persistent political detective, Republican James Comer of Kentucky questions whose hand was really on the wheel at the White House during Biden’s tenure. Side notes about Biden’s White House physician pleading the Fifth only add fuel to that fire. It’s like peeping into a dramatic courtroom series that leaves viewers hanging each week, except this show is painfully real and playing out in the hallowed corridors of Congress.
Blurring the lines about who exactly was running the government while firing autopen-generated pardons is enough to fuel a legitimate inquiry. In a flashback to the Trump era, there was a relentless search for any trace of Russian collusion with the then-president. Is it equally unreasonable to probe whether Biden was creatively colluding with himself or was guided by invisible influences when waving his clemency wand? It seems only fair that every administration be held accountable to similar scrutiny, regardless of which way the political winds blow.
