In the 16 years I was a legislator, I think I personally signed over 50,000 letters. That does not include the thousands of routine items of correspondence penned to this or that agency or jurisdiction. I didn’t have an autopen, simply my own hand. In fact, the thought of having a machine sign a letter for me never crossed my mind. If it was correspondence, it was my correspondence and my obligation to sign each and every letter sent out.
Now we’ve learned that our former president’s administration employed an autopen on numerous occasions, possible without the awareness of the President himself. Do not be fooled. This was not a simple matter of convenience. Indeed, in light of the former President’s incoherence—coupled with political minders in the Oval Office who felt it their duty to “run” the government while the chief executive stumbled about or was otherwise incapacitated—this is a scandal.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that our government in America under the last administration was viewed as untrustworthy. President Donald Trump was elected in part because of mistrust and disgust with how the government has performed in recent years. Now we learn that many of the orders and actions that bore President Joe Biden’s signature were signed with an autopen.
What’s more disturbing—beyond the validity or invalidity of what was signed—is how a man like Biden was elected in the first place, particularly since from the first moments of his presidency his competency and capacity to lead the nation were in doubt. One only needed to observe his behavior, speech, and decision-making. Yet he was elected, and we are worse for it.
Now we have also learned that the truth of Biden’s physical and mental health was obscured by those closest to him in an effort to not only preserve their power and influence, but their jobs. However, it’s not the first time this has occurred in presidential history.
Consider the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. On October 2nd,1919, Wilson had a very serious stroke, leaving him paralyzed on his left side, and with only partial vision in the right eye. Confined to bed for several weeks, his wife and his physician strictly limited who could see or speak with him. They decided which correspondence he could sign and which would be withheld. A doctor and neurosurgeon, Bert E. Park, examined Wilson’s medical records after the President’s death, writing that his malady negatively affected his personality, including the manifestation of “disorders of emotion, impaired impulse control, and defective judgment.”
In time, the President’s wife, Edith Wilson, would be regarded by some as “the first female President of the United States,” since she assumed an executive role. By November 1919, Wilson’s recovery was at best partial. For the remainder of 1919, his inner circle concealed the severity of his limitations. However, within months the public would learn of his condition, even as Wilson was ineffective in lobbying for his cherished League of Nations Treaty. It would go down in defeat. In the meantime, no one around him was willing to certify his unfitness to serve. Even his Vice President refused to affirm—as the Constitution requires—his “inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office.” Wilson’s extended period of incapacity while serving as president was largely unprecedented. That has now been exceeded by Joe Biden.
So then, why was it necessary for Biden to employ his autopen so frequently? Could it be that he was simply unavailable to sign documents? Or was he incapable of grasping the complex issues surrounding correspondence, executive orders, pardons, commutations, or other important executive actions?
It is clear to most observers that Biden’s health during his presidency was in a shambles. He shuffled about, slurred his speech, forgot the names of people around him, walked aimlessly around stages, fell off bicycles, and on occasion appeared as if he had no idea where he was.
Now we learn that, sadly, he has advanced prostate cancer, something only recently discovered, or at least that’s what we have been told. It strains credulity that his cancer was undetected in recent years. Testing for PSA—that indicates the possibility of prostate cancer—is a routine blood test, even after 70 years of age. I know. My PSA is tested annually since I’ve survived prostate cancer for the past 21 years.
The conclusion is clear to me. Biden’s illness was covered up, even as his public dysfunction was plainly obvious to anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see. And this is also clear. The coverup of Wilson’s illness in 1919 was minor compared to Biden’s, a president who had access to the nuclear codes in this dangerous time. And that is a scandal much larger than an autopen signature.
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