Donald Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum ordering his administration to investigate whether former President Joe Biden was really running the United States, or if key White House aides engaged in a "conspiracy" to take over executive power in light of his apparent "cognitive decline".
The Wednesday (June 4) memorandum stated that investigators will look at "who ran the United States while President Biden was in office," and whether aides "conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President."
Joe Biden's mental decline became apparent to many American voters for the first time during last year's presidential debates, where the now 82-year-old long-serving politician stumbled over his own words and struggled to form a coherent sentence. In the weeks that followed, the former President made matters worse with a series of gaffes, including calling Zelensky "President Putin" during a speech.
Now, the Trump administration will be examining whether Biden was really the person using an autopen to sign off on policy decisions and executive actions. “This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history,” President Trump wrote in the memorandum.
An autopen is a device that is used to replicate people's signatures and has been used frequently by past presidents due to the large number of documents they need to sign. However, Trump is alleging that the decision-making was often that of White House staffers and not his predecessor.
Trump said: “The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden’s signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.”
The current president named close allies Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington to investigate which executive actions were signed by autopen as well as "who authorized its use, and the validity of the resulting Presidential policy decisions."
Accusations that Joe Biden's serious mental decline was hidden from the public by key aides comes amid a political firestorm sparked by a major book publication, 'Original Sin' by CNN's Jake Tapper, who spoke to key figures in the former president's inner circle about the Biden White House.
In the book, he alleges: “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Trump's memorandum goes further, stating that Biden issued "1,200 Presidential documents, appointed 235 judges to the Federal bench," while at the same time suffering from apparent "cognitive deficiencies". He pointed to the fact that Biden "used an autopen to execute the vast majority of Biden’s executive actions," during the second half of his four years in office.
Pressure is mounting on former Biden officials with Republicans in the House of Representatives also requesting interviews with members of the former president's inner circle. This week James Comer, Chairman of the important Oversight Committee, called five Democrat staffers, alleging a "cover up" that was “one of the greatest scandals in our nation’s history.”
Speaking of his fresh investigation into Biden's mental decline, President Trump said: "And you know what, they ought to find out who was using that autopen. Because whoever that person was, he or she was like the President of the United States … I think a President should sign it, not use an autopen. And we’re going to find out whether or not he knew what the hell he was doing. … So I think it’s something that we should really look at because that’s so important.”
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