Joe Biden interview went off the rails after he made a shocking claim

The former president is still showing up in the spotlight. He’s trying to defend his awful presidency.

And this Joe Biden interview went off the rails after he made a shocking claim.

Biden Addresses Autopen Controversy in Historic Clemency Wave

In an interview with the New York Times, former President Joe Biden tackled questions about his administration’s use of an autopen, offering a glimpse into the reasoning behind its role in one of the most expansive clemency efforts in U.S. history.

The conversation focused on Biden’s decision to use an autopen for signing documents tied to his final pardons and clemency grants. In the closing weeks of his presidency, Biden granted clemency to more than 1,500 individuals, a landmark action the White House touted as the largest single-day clemency event by any U.S. president.

Speaking on Thursday, Biden stressed his direct involvement, saying he “made every decision” himself. He acknowledged the massive scope of the initiative, noting, “We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people.”

The Times, however, clarified that Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people.”

Instead, the report explained, “after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, [Biden] signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.”

To avoid the logistical burden of manually resigning updated documents, his team employed an autopen to apply Biden’s signature to the final versions.

Republican Backlash Intensifies

The autopen’s use has sparked fierce criticism from Republicans, who have challenged its propriety for official documents. In June, President Donald Trump issued a memo to the Department of Justice, instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi to probe whether the autopen’s use was linked to concerns about Biden’s mental sharpness.

Trump wrote, “In recent months, it has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden’s aides abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority.”

He labeled the issue “one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” claiming it hid who truly held executive power while Biden’s signature was used on thousands of documents to drive major policy shifts.

Trump’s Critique of Autopen Practices

Trump also voiced his disapproval to reporters in June, calling autopen use “inappropriate” for any president, despite its precedent among past administrations.

“Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important,” he said, stressing the value of a personal signature for significant roles like ambassadorships:

“You have somebody that’s devoting four years of their life or more to being an ambassador. I think you really deserve that person deserves to get a real signature… not an autopen signature.”