On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing his administration to investigate former President Joe Biden, making the specious argument that some of Biden’s actions were illegitimate because he used an autopen to sign documents.
This official action has roots in a conspiracy theory that Trump, who popularized the racist birther conspiracy against former President Barack Obama, has been pushing for months. Autopen devices, which are used to automatically sign documents, have been employed by presidents of both parties for decades.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement released after Trump’s order.
Biden also called out the timing for Trump’s order, noting, “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.”
The order echoes other Republican efforts to investigate Biden, including a recent statement from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer that he would be probing Biden’s health. Comer infamously failed to find impeachable material against Biden after Republicans won the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
President Donald Trump
As Biden indicated, the Trump-backed “One Big, Beautiful Bill” has been going through a tough time after House Republicans jammed the legislation through shortly before Memorial Day.
As it undergoes Senate consideration, notable Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia have been badmouthing provisions stuffed into the legislation. Greene said on Tuesday she would not have backed the bill if she knew about a provision preventing states from regulating artificial intelligence.
Similarly, top Trump donor Elon Musk has been complaining that the bill doesn’t cut enough vital government services, and has been whining about it on social media. But he apparently won’t return House Speaker Mike Johnson’s phone calls to address his concerns.
Democrats have blasted the bill for severe cuts to the safety net, most notably the plan to slash Medicaid and leave millions of currently covered Americans without health insurance.
Trump’s concern about Biden’s and his allies’ supposed lawbreaking doesn’t pass the smell test, either. Trump, of course, is a convicted felon who gave get-out-of-prison-free cards to hundreds of his supporters convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Trump administration has lost again and again in federal court, even in some cases overseen by judges he appointed, as it has attempted to circumvent federal law and cut key government agencies. His administration was also recently sued by Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka, who alleges that the decision to arrest him while he inspected an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center in May was political retribution.
Biden’s distraction argument also rings true after Trump fumed on Tuesday that interest rates need to be lowered to combat possible economic headwinds triggered by his unpopular tariff proclamations.
Trump would rather attention be diverted anywhere but at him, his administration, and congressional Republicans, who are facing an array of self-inflicted wounds hurting the country in multiple ways. So he turns to Biden.
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