1776Reporting
A new report has reignited concerns over President Joe Biden’s mental sharpness, as findings suggest that most official documents from his administration were signed using an autopen, rather than his personal signature. The revelation has led to speculation over whether Biden was truly authorizing key government orders.
“WHOEVER CONTROLLED THE AUTOPEN CONTROLLED THE PRESIDENCY,” the Oversight Project, a government watchdog arm of the Heritage Foundation, posted to X on Thursday.
The group claims it compiled every document bearing Biden’s signature throughout his presidency and discovered an alarming pattern. “All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year,” the post stated, accompanied by photographic evidence.
An autopen is a machine that replicates a signature automatically, as opposed to an authentic, handwritten signature.
The Oversight Project shared three examples: two executive orders—one signed in 2022, another in 2024—and Biden’s announcement that he was stepping down from the 2024 presidential race. The first two documents bore an identical signature, a straight line followed by “R. Biden Jr.” But the third document, Biden’s withdrawal announcement, displayed a noticeably different and less uniform signature.
Fox News Digital independently reviewed over 20 executive orders from the Biden era, spanning 2021 to 2024, and found that each bore the same autopen-generated signature. Attempts to get a response from Biden’s office regarding the findings went unanswered.
Comparisons were also drawn to former President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which were often signed publicly. Trump’s signatures remained consistent but were penned by hand, unlike Biden’s reliance on an autopen.
The concerns over Biden’s cognitive abilities have been growing for years. As he embarked on his re-election bid in early 2024, questions surrounding his mental acuity intensified. Special counsel Robert Hur, while investigating Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, declined to pursue charges, citing Biden as “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
That assessment fed into a growing storm of doubt about Biden’s capability to serve another term. The scrutiny reached a peak in June 2024 during his first and only debate against Trump. Biden’s performance was widely seen as disastrous—he stumbled over answers, lost his train of thought, and failed to hit key points, prompting a bipartisan wave of calls for him to step aside.
In the lead-up to that debate, Biden had already faced a series of troubling moments. Former President Barack Obama was seen guiding him offstage at a fundraiser. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had to redirect him at a G-7 summit when he wandered away to give a thumbs-up to a parachutist. Each instance fueled the growing belief that Biden was not in full control of his presidency.
Following his debate collapse, pressure mounted from both conservative critics and Democrat insiders to remove him from the ticket. In July 2024, Biden formally withdrew from the race. Notably, the signature on his withdrawal document differed from the autopen signature used throughout his presidency, further fueling speculation.
The controversy has now drawn legal attention. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sent a letter to the Department of Justice last week, demanding an investigation into whether Biden’s “cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval.”
“There are profound reasons to suspect that Biden’s staff and political allies exploited his mental decline to issue purported presidential orders without his knowing approval,” Bailey wrote.
Adding to the concern, House Speaker Mike Johnson recounted a shocking encounter with Biden in 2024. When confronted about an executive order pausing new liquid natural gas exports, Biden allegedly denied signing it. “I didn’t do that,” Biden told Johnson, according to an interview with journalist Bari Weiss.
“Sir, you paused it, I know,” Johnson said he responded. “I’ve talked to those people this morning, this is doing massive damage to our economy, national security.”
Johnson walked away from that meeting deeply unsettled. “I thought, ‘We are in serious trouble—who is running the country?’”
Now, the Oversight Project is calling for an investigation into “who controlled the autopen” during Biden’s presidency.
“For investigators to determine whether then-President Biden actually ordered the signature of relevant legal documents, or if he even had the mental capacity to, they must first determine who controlled the autopen and what checks there were in place,” the group posted on X.
With Biden’s cognitive health under renewed scrutiny and mounting questions over the authenticity of his executive orders, the debate over whether he was fully in charge of his presidency continues to grow. Was Biden truly making decisions, or was he merely a figurehead while others controlled the autopen? The search for answers has only just begun.
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