Trump flaunts his signature as he slams Biden's autopen pardons: 'The president didn't know he was alive'
WASHINGTON, DC: Donald Trump turned an Oval Office signing ceremony into a comedy routine on Monday, August 25, mocking Joe Biden’s so-called “autopen pardons” and flexing his own John Hancock like it was a prized possession.
The president accused his predecessor of outsourcing his presidential penmanship to a robot arm, and he wasn’t about to let that one slide.
Trump says nobody can do a signature like his
After signing an executive order in front of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Donald Trump flaunted his artwork.
"There's no autopen that can do that. Look at that, Pam. Is that a good signature?" he boasted, pointing to his signature jagged scrawl. "Seriously. Is that a good signature? Who can, who can write like that? Nobody."
Trump said Biden’s pardons were "worthless," especially the ones handed out in the final weeks of his presidency.
"I don't know. That's the other thing. I assume we're looking at the whole autopen scam because the person that ran it said he spoke to it briefly twice about nothing," Trump continued. "That means that all those pardons that he gave to some very bad people, very unpatriotic people, very evil people."
The commander-in-chief added, "It looks to me like those pardons are worthless because number one, you shouldn't use an autopen very specifically, but if you do, it has to be a very good reason. And they have to know that the president wanted it."
Trump torches Biden's competence
Donald Trump subsequently lit into Joe Biden personally, calling him clueless about the whole process.
"The president didn't want this. The president didn't know he was alive. Okay. He never approved any of this stuff. He wasn't for open borders and all the other thing. He was never for open borders. I've known Biden a long time. He was never very sharp, but he was never in favor of open borders and all of the other things he did to destroy our country," Trump said.
The claims come just weeks after Biden brushed off GOP accusations. At the time, the Democrat defended his use of the autopen, saying he’d “orally granted all the pardons” and authorized the signatures himself.
“I made every decision,” Biden told The New York Times in a phone interview, adding that the autopen was necessary “because we’re talking about a whole lot of people.”
Calling Trump and Republicans “liars,” Biden blasted the whole controversy as “ridiculous and false.”
Biden's eyebrow-raising pardons
The stakes in the probe are high. Investigators are zeroing in on Joe Biden’s eyebrow-raising pardons, starting with five family members, including siblings James Biden, Frank Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, plus their spouses, who were all covered under preemptive clemency.
The former president defended the move, saying it was meant “to protect them from future politically motivated investigations.” His son, Hunter Biden, also received a pardon after federal convictions on tax and firearms charges.
In his final hours in office, Biden also pardoned some headline-grabbing names such as Dr Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and even members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 riots.
The House Oversight Committee is now expected to release a full report once the investigation wraps.
Republicans question Biden's mental fitness
But the pardons aren’t the only thing on the chopping block. GOP lawmakers are also probing Biden’s mental fitness during his last months in office.
The Oversight Committee subpoenaed Biden’s former physician, Dr Kevin O’Connor, hoping to determine whether the then-president was competent when he authorized the autopen. If he wasn’t, Republicans argue the pardons may not hold water.
O’Connor, however, refused to testify and invoked the Fifth Amendment.
“Dr O'Connor would rather conceal the truth,” said Rep James Comer, the committee’s chair. “The American people demand transparency, but his refusal makes it clear there was a conspiracy."
The doctor’s attorney, David Schertler, countered that O’Connor had “no choice” but to remain silent, citing medical confidentiality rules and an ongoing Justice Department probe into the whole autopen affair.
