By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee zeroed in on former President Joe Biden’s mental capacity during his presidency and his administration’s alleged use of the “autopen” for key executive actions.
“As we now know, there was a conspiracy to hide the president’s true condition,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).
“The bill of goods, they sold this country– they walked this country right into one of the greatest constitutional crises of our history,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
“The Biden administration may go down in history as the most brazen constitutional fraud,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “A Potemkin presidency fronted by a failing puppet with staffers behind the scenes pulling the strings.”
Republicans have long criticized the former president over his mental fitness while in office, as well as the Biden administration’s use of the autopen while at the White House. Democrats, however, called the attacks political and even protested this week’s hearing on Capitol Hill.
Three GOP-invited witnesses testified Wednesday — however, none had direct ties to the Biden administration. The hearing, titled “Unfit to Serve,” was notably boycotted by most Democrats, with only Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) in attendance.
They said the committee should focus on current issues — not the past.
“In the last week alone, several events have demanded this committee’s immediate attention. The horrific assassination in Minnesota, the treatment of our colleague, Senator Padilla, by federal agents in Los Angeles and President Trump’s unprecedented deployment of the U.S. military in Los Angeles,” said Durbin. “Apparently, armchair diagnosing former President Biden is more important than the issues of grave concern, which I’ve mentioned.”
Meanwhile, President Trump continues to allege that Biden staff may have forged his signature using an autopen.
“We’re going to start looking into this whole thing with who signed this legislation,” said Trump while on Capitol Hill in late May. “It wasn’t him. He auto-penned it. Who was operating the autopen?”
At this point, there is limited evidence to support some of the president’s claims about Biden’s use of the autopen for key documents and legislation. However, Trump has directed White House and Justice Department lawyers to investigate.
This week’s hearing kicks off the first in what’s expected to be a series of congressional hearings this year on Biden’s mental fitness in office. On the House side, the Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Biden’s former staff and even his White House physician to testify on June 27.
