Sen Eric Schmitt (R-MO) took action on Thursday to uncover what he called one of the most damning scandals in U.S. history—demanding access to sealed Biden autopen records after former Biden official Neera Tanden admitted she was in control of it for over a year and a half.
Tanden, who served as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, gave closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday. Under oath, she admitted that she was the one authorized to use Joe Biden’s autopen from October 2021 until May 2023.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) recently named five Biden aides as central players in what appears to be a coordinated effort to hide the president’s mental decline, and the autopen is at the center of it.
Tanden testified that not only was she authorized to use the autopen, but she could also direct its use. She denied any wrongdoing but admitted something jaw-dropping: she used the autopen without direct confirmation from Biden himself, The Washington Examiner reported.
In other words, Tanden seemed to say she was signing official actions in Biden’s name without verifying if he had approved them.
That may have included pardoning six convicted criminals on December 30, 2022, while Biden was vacationing and playing golf in St. Croix. Based on Tanden’s testimony, she was likely the one behind those pardons while the president was out on the golf course.
When asked if there was a cover-up of Biden’s health issues, Tanden responded: “Absolutely not.”
But Schmitt isn’t buying it.
“I just took a first-of-its-kind act on the Biden autopen coverup,” he announced. “Using my authority as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, I have submitted a ‘special access request’ to Archivist Marco Rubio to obtain sealed documents. It may blow this whole thing open,” he said on X.
“I previewed this action this morning. The Biden mental decline coverup was one of the most damning scandals in U.S. history,” Schmitt continued. “A key priority of mine is to make sure that something like this will never happen again. The only way to do that is to figure out what went wrong and who was running the country. With the requested documents, the subcommittee can begin work on crafting a solution.”
Schmitt didn’t hold back: “This is a bigger scandal than Watergate,” he said on Fox Business.
He explained the legal authority behind his move: “The ‘special access request’ is a provision of the Presidential Records Act that authorizes a congressional subcommittee to obtain past presidential records necessary for the conduct of its business, even if those records are not yet available to the general public.”
And the stakes couldn’t be higher.
“Given Biden’s profound mental decline, there are serious questions about the validity of orders signed by autopen in his name,” Schmitt said.
He added: “Accordingly, I have requested for the subcommittee access to all Biden White House memoranda concerning autopen procedures and authorization.”
But he didn’t stop there.
“I have also requested Biden White House documents about specific uses of the autopen, as well as about pardons made in the final months of his term, Biden’s ‘Equal Rights Amendment’ declaration, and any discussion of the 25th Amendment,” he said.
Schmitt closed with a warning every American should take seriously: “We can never again allow our country to be run by nameless, faceless staffers. We can never again question who is running the country or if the acts of our President are legitimate. We can never again be ruled by the autopen.”
