Biden Is Still Not In Control

Whatever sense of transparency The New York Times and Joe Biden’s team were aiming for with that recent interview about his use of an autopen as president, I’m not sure they realize just how transparent it actually was.

Times reporter Charlie Savage on Sunday published what the paper said were excerpts of a 10-minute-long interview with the former president, mostly regarding a slew of scandalous, 11th-hour pardons he issued before exiting office, and his alleged authorization of his staff to use an autopen to sign off on those pardons. It’s enough that Biden would have independently felt the need to explain this almost six months after leaving office, but the entire transcript — or, at least what The Times decided to publish of it — reads like he was coached by some very nervous people to say some very specific things in the hope that it might shield them from looming legal jeopardy.

That’s of course almost certainly what happened. The circumstances under which Biden, by his own admission, allowed the use of a machine to sign presidential directives are highly suspect. His most controversial pardons came after his party lost the 2024 election, and that was after Biden was forced to abandon his campaign because his mental and physical decline were no longer deniable by even his most craven allies.

The public record so far holds that what took place as Biden’s health was in a free fall was the takeover of a president’s authority to sign last-minute pardons for hundreds of people. That included preemptive pardons for prominent individuals who had neither been investigated nor charged with any crimes. Biden can say now that he delegated that authority to his staff, but it’s unclear whether that’s permissible for a president who, in all likelihood, was not fully cognizant.

It’s obvious

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