Speaker Mike Johnson (right) tells the story of when he met privately with President Biden. He asked the president about an executive order he had just signed putting liquid natural gas exports on hold.
“And he looks at me stunned, and he said, 'I didn't do that,' I said, 'Mr. President, yes you did. It was an executive order, like three weeks ago.' It occurred to me he was not lying to me. He genuinely did not know what he was signing.”
He might not have signed it after all, as the Oversight Project, a Heritage Foundation group, says most if not all of the president's signatures were done using autopen, a mechanical device that holds an actual pen to a piece of paper and moves the pen, mimicking a real copy of Joe Biden's signature.
Kyle Brosnan of the Oversight Project, an initiative of The Heritage Foundation, says it raises some very concerning questions.
“Who had access to the autopen? Were they doing it pursuant to the president's authorization? And what are the legal effects of the fact that the president did not appear to hand sign these documents?”
The use of the presidential autopen dates back to the 1950s, and there’s been much debate about its legality. In 2013, Barack Obama became the first president to sign a bill into law using an autopen, PJ Media reports. Obama was vacationing in Hawaii at the time. His office relied on a 30-page memo from President George W. Bush's legal team asserting that the president's presence was not required as long as said president had authorized the signature.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has called for a Department of Justice investigation into the handlers of Biden’s handlers and the autopen.
The investigation is real in the form of a letter from Bailey to Michael Horowitz, the DOJ Inspector General, but it is more about creating the conversation, Bailey said.
Rules and regulations governing the office of the Inspector General require confidentiality of work and investigations from the IG.
“We may not know for some time,” Bailey said, whether Horowitz, confirmed in 2012 during the Obama administration, and his staff have taken on the assignment.
There is one ultimate question that stands out:
“Who was running the country for the last four years?”
