It’s clear today is going to be all about President Donald Trump’s assertion that pardons issued by former President Joe Biden are null and void, owing to the fact Joe Biden’s staff used an autopen to sign a lot of his documents, including all pardons except Hunter’s.
We discussed that here earlier this morning.
Now Jake Tapper — you know, the guy who waited until 2025 to write a book about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline — is chiming in, saying Donald Trump doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to do this:
At 12:35 am ET, the president decreed that he was nullifying President Biden’s preemptive pardons of members of the January 6 committee, an assertion of a power the Constitution does not bestow. pic.twitter.com/S7ObJorpKx
— Jake Tapper 🦅 (@jaketapper) March 17, 2025
As our writer Aaron said, there are absolutely legitimate legal questions surrounding not only the pardons but other legislation signed by an autopen. Namely: was Joe Biden aware of the pardons? Was he aware of the legislation?
Did the White House release this? Or you still that easily baited by trumps rants?
— Mitchell Wexler (@MitchWex) March 17, 2025
They always are baited by Trump’s rants.
Biden didn’t even know about the pardons.
— garbage (@PalaceOfStone) March 17, 2025
And only Biden has the authority to issue those pardons. If he didn’t know, whoever did issue them didn’t have Constitutional authority.
There is absolutely legit legality questions on the use of the Autopen in this manner.
Yes, it’s been used in some cases for signing law. I think Obama did once, but that isn’t really what this is for.
I think there’s legit legal problems here.
— 🇺🇸 Just My Opinion 🇺🇸 (@JustMyOpinions4) March 17, 2025
Yes, there are.
And it’s all the Democrats’ fault.
So is it a constitutional crisis because Trump calls out the Autopen, or because @JoeBiden wasn’t capable of running the country and someone else signed the pardons and EOs?
— WayneMustang (@BourbonWayne) March 17, 2025
Recommended
The latter.
If the Democrats — including Kamala Harris — had done their job and removed Joe Biden from office when they deemed him unfit to run for reelection, Harris would’ve been POTUS, and the pardons would’ve been signed by someone with a (mostly) functioning brain.
They didn’t do that.
And here we are.
At 7:54am, @jaketapper decreed he is sole interpreter of the Constitution and that it explicitly grants an Autopen and whoever controls it authority to grant preemptive pardons.
Up next on CNN: “Why trust in CNN is at an all time high”— Joshua Hartley (@JHartley2) March 17, 2025
You’ll be not shocked to learn that Jake Tapper said NOTHING on X about Joe Biden trying to amend the Constitution via social media posts.
The Constitution doesn’t bestow any powers to an Autopen, Jake.
Even you know that.
Or do we have to wait to read about it in another book 4 years from now?— Jactan1776 (@Jactan1776) March 17, 2025
Depends on how big that book advance check is.
Notice Jake has no issue with the autopen part of the story https://t.co/bqKNN9pii9
— Rob Schmitt (@SchmittNYC) March 17, 2025
We noticed.
The same people fine with the Autopen Presidency will also scream about how Elon Musk is an unelected oligarch running America.
We’ll leave you with these thoughts, also from Aaron:
I’m pretty sure you don’t have a legal degree but I do.
Only the President of the United States can issue a pardon on the federal level.
I accept the principle that the pardon can be written by another person, and it can even be physically signed using an auto pen by another… https://t.co/VyAoZvt2wV
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) March 17, 2025
The entire post reads:
I accept the principle that the pardon can be written by another person, and it can even be physically signed using an auto pen by another person at the President’s direction.
But I do not accept the notion that this person can do it without the knowledge and consent of the president. Because if it is done without the knowledge or consent of the president, then it is not done in any meaningful way by the president.
And as I just said only the president can issue a pardon on the federal level.
So if Trump can show what he claims, then his justice department has every right to treat those pardons purportedly issued by Biden as a nullity. Void ab initio
I discuss the issue in more detail, here: https://twitchy.com/aaronwalker/2025/03/17/donald-trump-declares-bidens-pardons-to-be-void-n2409935
We couldn’t have said it any better.
