President Trump on Monday cast doubt on former President Joseph R. Biden\u2019s claim that he used an autopen to sign pardons for family members and others, citing the high volume of clemency requests. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump argued that an autopen is typically reserved for routine correspondence\u2014like letters to children or voters\u2014not for signing pardons or major legal documents. He also questioned whether Biden, whose mental fitness has been under scrutiny, fully understood the pardons he was authorizing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn autopen is supposed to write to a young, 7-year-old boy that writes to the president and wants to be president someday and he loves America,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the autopen is supposed to be. It\u2019s not supposed to be for signing major legislation and all other things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump added, \u201cI doubt he knew. I doubt they even spoke to him about it,\u201d and criticized Biden\u2019s stance on issues like open borders and transgender rights. He also called Biden\u2019s advisers \u201csick people\u201d and reiterated his belief that Biden was unaware of what he was signing.<\/p>\n
In response, Biden pushed back in a New York Times interview published Sunday, accusing Trump and congressional Republicans of spreading falsehoods about his use of the autopen. \u201cThey\u2019re liars. They know it,\u201d Biden said, insisting he personally made all decisions about clemency.<\/p>\n
In the final days of his presidency, Biden issued hundreds of pardons, including to family members, individuals in home confinement, nonviolent drug offenders, and members of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump on Monday cast doubt on former President Joseph R. Biden\u2019s claim that he used an autopen to sign pardons for family members and others, citing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n