Former President Joe Biden issued a strong response Wednesday evening to President Trump’s announcement of a federal investigation into actions taken during Biden’s presidency. The probe, announced earlier in the day, questions the use of the autopen for signing official documents and suggests Biden’s staff may have concealed signs of cognitive decline during his time in office.
In a statement circulated to several media outlets, including Axios, Biden rejected the premise of the investigation outright. “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,” he said. “Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
Biden went on to accuse Trump and his Republican allies in Congress of orchestrating the investigation as a political diversion. “This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,” Biden said in his emailed remarks.
Trump’s directive, as outlined in the presidential order, instructs the counsel to the president working in coordination with Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials to determine whether any individuals conspired to mislead the American public regarding Biden’s mental fitness and, in doing so, improperly exercised presidential powers.
Central to the probe is Biden’s reported use of the autopen, an automated signature device that has become a focus of right-wing scrutiny. Trump first raised concerns about the practice last month, claiming it undermined the legitimacy of Biden’s executive authority.
The renewed attention on Biden’s health comes in the wake of mounting speculation following his Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis and the release of Original Sin, a book co-authored by journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, which alleges internal turmoil and concerns about Biden’s condition during his presidency.