WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans announced policy Tuesday. A long-promised report About the former president Joe Biden’s Using an autopen, he thoroughly criticized the workings of the White House, extensively rehashing public information and delivering scathing criticism of the president during his time in office and those close to him.
The Republican report does not include any concrete evidence that Biden’s aides conspired to enact the policy without his knowledge or that the president was unaware of any laws, pardons or executive orders signed in his name. But Republicans said the findings cast doubt on everything Biden did while in office. They wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting a thorough investigation. President Donald Trump ordered A similar inquiry was made earlier this year.
The core of the report is: contested Biden’s mental health has deteriorated to the point that White House officials say they were able to enact policies without his knowledge. The paper focuses on pardons Biden granted while president, including to his son Hunter Biden, based on testimony from close associates of Biden.
“The cost of President Biden’s plan to hide the effects of declining physical and mental acuity was high and will likely never be fully calculated,” the report states. “The cover-up jeopardized America’s national security and jeopardized the nation’s confidence in its leadership.”
Biden has called such claims “ridiculous and false” and has vehemently denied knowledge of his administration’s actions. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee denounced the investigation as a distraction and a waste of time.
Republicans are shifting their focus Back to Biden The government has been shut down and Congress is deadlocked over legislation to fund the government during the politically tumultuous 10 months since President Trump took office. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has adjourned the House for nearly a month, halting most public committee work.
The report on Biden was largely compiled over the months before the shutdown began. The report, based on interviews with more than a dozen Biden aides, offers few new revelations and instead draws broad conclusions from unanswered questions.
They include repeated references to polls about Biden’s approval rating, as well as public gaffes and acknowledgments of apparent aging, many of which are publicly known.
The article alleges a “cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” orchestrated by Biden’s aides, and specifically targets Biden’s doctor, Kevin O’Connor, who invoked his Fifth Amendment right to bar him from testifying. Republicans also named senior aides Anthony Bernal and Annie Tomasini, who also petitioned the fifth. Republicans said all three “should be subject to further scrutiny” from the Justice Department.
Republicans also sent a letter to the Washington, D.C., Board of Health asking that O’Connor be “disciplined, sanctioned, or revoked his medical license” and “barred from practicing medicine in the District of Columbia.”
The report does not include a complete transcript of the sometimes hours-long recorded testimony that witnesses gave before the committee. He has repeatedly criticized Biden officials and Democratic supporters for defending Biden’s mental health.
“The innermost layer, or cocoon, of White House officials orchestrated one of the greatest scandals in American history, covering up a cognitively deficient president and denying any means of confirming his death,” the report said.
The report alleges that President Biden’s record-keeping policies were “so lax that it was difficult or impossible to establish a chain of command for certain decisions,” but Republicans did not cite any specific instances in which the chain of command was compromised or policies were enacted without Biden’s knowledge.
Still, Republicans argue that Biden’s Using the autopen Unless there is documented evidence that he approved the decision, the decision should be considered invalid.
“Absent evidence of executive actions taken during President Biden’s tenure that show that President Biden actually took certain executive actions, the committee considers those actions taken through the use of an autopen to be invalid,” the report states.
Democrats and legal experts have warned that widespread oversight of the president’s actions could create future legal headaches for the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, who often enact policies dictated by lawmakers through devices like the presidential autopen.
