Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee skewered Democrats for burying their heads in the sand once again over the question of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline by skipping a hearing about the alleged abuse of the aging president’s autopen authority.
“Not a single Democrat is here today because not a single one of them gives a damn about the fact that they lied to the American people for four years,” erupted Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
“They knew. Every one of them knew that Joe Biden was mentally not competent to do the job,” he added. “And they’re not here because they can’t defend themselves.”
During the hearing, titled “Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution,” Republican senators voiced concern that the presidential autopen had been used for executive orders and pardons without Biden’s knowledge.
GOP committee members also lampooned prominent Democrats who ran cover for the oldest-ever president’s public slip-ups by playing a montage of their embarrassing evasions.
“I can’t even keep up with him,” said ex-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who has since left the Democratic Party, in one clip. “He is sharp. He is on top of things”
“He has knowledge. He has judgment. He has strategic thinking,” House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at another point in the video footage — despite having been part of the push to remove Biden from the 2024 Democratic ticket.
“Many elected officials, including some in this chamber, have used autopens — a mechanical device that replicates a signature. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, so long as we’re the ones actually making the decisions,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
“But under President Biden, the autopen became a troubling symbol,” he added. “A symbol of an absentee president and an executive branch directed by nameless, faceless, aides that no one outside of Washington DC had ever heard of and no one ever voted for.”
The only Democratic members to show face at the hearing were Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Earlier this month, President Trump ordered his administration to investigate “who ran the United States while Biden was in office” and to look into the executive actions that had been signed with an autopen.
Biden immediately snapped back in a written statement, vehemently denying the claims that he had not been the one making decisions in the Oval Office.
“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” the ex-president’s statement read.
In his opening remarks, Durbin expressed frustration that there had not been Judiciary Committee oversight hearings about the Minnesota assassinations, the arrest of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) at a Department of Homeland Security press conference, or the Los Angeles deployments of National Guard to quell anti-ICE riots.
“Apparently armchair-diagnosing President Biden is more important than the issues of grave concern which I’ve mentioned,” said Durbin.
The Illinois senator also attempted to redirect attention from the former president by calling Trump’s cognitive ability into question.
Republican committee members declined to entertain speculation about Trump’s mental state, instead refocusing attention on Biden’s decline and his administration’s autopen use.
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