Sen. Josh Hawley’s latest demand for transparency is a gut punch to the Biden camp’s secrecy. The Missouri Republican is calling for former President Joe Biden to release records proving that he approved the use of an autopen to sign clemency grants, as Newsmax reports. This isn’t just bureaucratic nitpicking -- it’s a question of whether Biden was fully in control.
Earlier this week, Hawley grilled a former Justice Department official during a Senate hearing, spotlighting GOP concerns over Biden’s mental fitness and alleged cover-ups by his aides. The Oversight Project, a government watchdog group, exposed Biden’s use of three distinct autopen signatures during his presidency. Hawley’s push, reported by the Washington Examiner, smells like a broader effort to unravel the progressive machine’s opacity.
“For every time that Biden authorized the autopen, there should be a record,” Hawley declared. He’s not wrong -- presidents don’t get to rubber-stamp pardons for cronies without a paper trail. The demand for transparency cuts through the left’s sanctimonious fog like a Missouri summer sun.
In 2022, Biden’s autopen was busy, signing documents on eight dates when he was reportedly active in Washington. On Aug. 3, 2022, he hand-signed bills but used the autopen for an executive order on abortion access. Sounds like someone was cherry-picking when to wield the pen himself.
The Oversight Project’s Theodore Wold, a former Trump-era DOJ official, testified that records should exist showing what documents Biden reviewed and when he consented to autopen use. “There should be a record of what documents are presented,” Wold said. Without those, the public’s left guessing whether Biden was calling the shots or just napping through them.
Hawley doubled down, framing it as a “binary question” of whether Biden actually approved the autopen’s use. He’s not just poking at procedure; he’s exposing a potential scandal where Biden’s team might’ve played fast and loose with presidential power. The left’s silence on this is deafening.
Fast forward to Dec. 12, 2024, when Biden unleashed the largest single-day clemency spree in modern history, commuting 1,499 sentences and pardoning 39 people. Among the recipients were family members like his son Hunter Biden and his brothers, James and Francis. Pardoning your kin while waving the “justice” flag reeks of swampy favoritism.
Biden didn’t stop there -- he commuted 37 of 40 federal death row sentences in December 2024. Hawley wasn’t shy, noting Biden granted clemency to “murderers, drug dealers, child rapists.” The senator’s bluntness underscores a conservative fury at what looks like a fire sale of justice.
“Did Joe Biden actually consent to the use of the autopen and all of the people he pardoned?” Hawley asked. It’s a fair question when the clemency list reads like a who’s-who of Biden’s inner circle and progressive darlings. The lack of answers fuels suspicions of a White House in disarray.
Biden’s pardon spree extended to former Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen. Adam Schiff, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and retired Gen. Mark Milley. Republicans slammed these as an abuse of power, arguing Biden was shielding allies from accountability. It’s hard to see this as anything but a parting gift to the establishment elite.
The House Oversight Committee is already digging into Biden’s mental fitness, and Hawley’s autopen probe adds fuel to that fire. If Biden was too frail to sign his own name, what else were his aides hiding? The progressive narrative of “trust us” is crumbling under scrutiny.
“If you want an answer to the question ‘Did Joe Biden actually assent?’ ... There should be a record,” Hawley insisted. He’s calling for Biden to release the documents, a move that could expose whether the former president was a puppet of his administration. Transparency shouldn’t be this hard.
President Donald Trump jumped in earlier this month, urging the Justice Department to investigate Biden’s autopen use. Trump’s involvement signals this isn’t just a Senate sideshow -- it’s a GOP rallying cry. The contrast between Trump’s energy and Biden’s evasiveness couldn’t be starker.
Hawley’s demand for records is a direct challenge to the left’s obsession with process over principle. If Biden’s team can’t produce a clear trail of consent, it’s not just sloppy -- it’s a betrayal of public trust. Conservatives are right to smell a rat.
The autopen saga is more than a footnote; it’s a window into a presidency that prioritized loyalty over accountability. Hawley’s push for answers is a reminder that power without oversight is a recipe for abuse. Biden’s legacy, already shaky, might not survive this spotlight.
