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Former President Joe Biden defended his use of an autopen during a recent interview, shedding light on his administration’s rationale for the controversial use of the technology.
The interview with the New York Times was centered around his use of an autopen during the last pardons that he made during the end of his administration.
In his final weeks in office, Biden granted clemency and pardoned more than 1,500 individuals, in what the White House described at the time as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president.
Speaking to the Times on Thursday, Biden said that he “made every decision” on his own.
HERE ARE BIDEN’S MOST CONTROVERSIAL PARDONS, WITH MOST SIGNED USING AUTOPEN
In his final weeks in office, President Joe Biden granted clemency and pardoned more than 1,500 individuals. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We’re talking about [granting clemency to] a whole lot of people,” the Democrat said.
However, the Times reported that Biden “did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people,” according to the former president and his aides.
“Rather, 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,” the Times’s report read.
Instead of repeatedly asking the president to resign updated versions of official documents, his staff used an autopen to put Biden’s signature on the final version.
Biden’s comments came as Republicans attacked him for his autopen use on a massive number of official documents.
In June, President Donald Trump sent a memo to the Department of Justice directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the autopen use, and to determine whether it was related to a decline in Biden’s mental state.
U.S. President Joe Biden yells out to the press while departing the 102nd National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the Ellipse on Dec. 5, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
BIDEN ONLY HAND-SIGNED ONE PARDON DURING FINAL SPREE, AND IT WAS HIS MOST CONTROVERSIAL ONE
“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,” Trump wrote.
“This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
Also in June, Trump told reporters that he thought it was “inappropriate” to use an autopen at all, though past presidents have used them.
“Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important,” Trump said. “Even if you’re signing ambassadorships or – and I consider that important, I think it’s inappropriate.”
President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen has been criticized by Republicans. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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“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.”
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
