President Donald Trump continued to push a new theory early Wednesday morning that is floating around conservative circles about former President Joe Biden.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and then attacked the autopen — a presidential tool that Trump himself has admitted to using.
“With the exception of the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!” Trump wrote at 2:28 a.m.
His latest rant comes as Republicans and right-leaning media outlets have pushed the notion that Biden had relied on using an autopen to sign important documents.
In March, Trump declared that Biden’s preemptive pardons granted at the end of his presidency were “void,” after the Oversight Project, an arm of The Heritage Foundation, alleged that the device was used without his knowledge to pardon his family members and former members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. There is no evidence to suggest that the tool was used without his knowledge.
In May, Trump also claimed that Biden’s staffers used the autopen to exploit the presidency.
“It was the people that knew he was cognitively impaired, and that took over the Autopen. They stole the Presidency of the United States, and put us in Great Danger. This is TREASON at the Highest Level! They did it to destroy our Country,” he wrote on Truth Social.
An autopen, a machine used for duplicating a signature, allows a public figure to autograph everything from merchandise to letters. Presidents have used the device for decades.
The White House confirmed Tuesday that the Department of Justice is now examining Biden’s pardons issued earlier this year, as the House Oversight Committee investigates the “cover up” of the former president’s alleged mental decline and autopen use.
“It’s whether or not the president of the United States knew it was being used, and if not, who was using it in his name, which is clearly illegal behavior,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during Tuesday’s press briefing.
Biden last-minute preemptively pardoned his siblings and their spouses on Jan 20, arguing that his family was “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.” He also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and House committee members that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
Biden has been the focus of many conservatives after a new book, written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, raised questions about Biden’s health “decline” during his presidency. While Biden allies have framed the book as untrue, Republicans have accused Biden and his staff — both with and without his knowledge — of orchestrating a cover up about his mental abilities.
Following a disastrous debate performance against Trump last June, Biden withdrew from the 2024 race following calls from Democrats to step aside, and he endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris. She lost to Trump, who won all seven battleground states.