House Republicans unveiled Biden’s automatic report, but provided little new information

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled their long-promised report on former President Joe Biden’s use of the motor pen, offering a scathing critique of his time in office and his inner circle, largely rehashing public information while making sweeping accusations about the workings of the White House.

The GOP report does not include any concrete evidence that his aides conspired to enact policies without Biden’s knowledge or that the president was not aware of the laws, pardons or executive orders signed in his name. But Republicans said their findings cast doubt on all of Biden’s actions in office. They sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging a full investigation. President Donald Trump ordered a similar investigation earlier this year.

At its core, the report makes the disputed claims that Biden’s mental state declined to the point that it allowed White House officials to enact policies without his knowledge. He is largely focused on the pardons he granted in office, including to his son, Hunter Biden, based on depositions with close Biden aides.

“The cost of the scheme to hide the fallout from President Biden’s decline in physical and mental acuity was significant, but will likely never be fully calculated,” the report said. “The cover-up puts America’s national security at risk and the nation’s trust in its leaders at risk.”

Biden strongly denied that he was not aware of his administration’s actions, calling these allegations “ridiculous and false.” Democrats on the House Oversight Committee denounced the investigation as a distraction and a waste of time.

Read more: Fact-checking Trump’s claim that Biden’s pardon was “invalid” because he used an automatic pen

Republicans are turning attention back to Biden at a turbulent time, 10 months into Trump’s presidency, with the government shut down and Congress stalling on legislation to fund it. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., kept the chamber out of session for nearly a month, with most public-facing committee work halted.

The report on Biden was largely compiled over several months before the shutdown began. Based on interviews with more than a dozen members of Biden’s inner circle, the report offers few new findings, instead drawing broad conclusions from unanswered questions.

The report includes frequent references to polls about Biden’s approval ratings and perceptions of his public missteps and apparent age, many of which are publicly known.

The report alleges there was a “cover-up of the president’s cognitive decline” orchestrated by Biden’s inner circle and specifically targets Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, who invoked his Fifth Amendment right against testifying. Republicans also singled out top aides Anthony Bernal and Annie Tommasini, who similarly championed the Fifth. Republicans said the three “should face more scrutiny” from the Justice Department.

Republicans also sent a letter to the D.C. Board of Medicine urging that O’Connor face “discipline, punishment, or revocation of his medical license” and be “barred from practicing medicine in the District of Columbia.”

The report does not include complete transcripts of many hours of recorded testimony given by witnesses before the committee. She repeatedly rebukes Biden officials and Democratic allies for defending Biden’s mental state.

“The inner circle, or cocoon, of White House senior staff orchestrated one of the largest scandals in American history, concealing a cognitively failing president and rejecting any means of confirming such a death,” the report says.

While the report claims that the White House’s record-keeping policies under Biden “were so lax that the chain of custody for a particular decision is difficult or impossible to determine,” Republicans do not provide any concrete examples of violating the chain of command or enacting policy without Biden’s knowledge.

However, Republicans argue that Biden’s use of the robotic pen should be deemed invalid unless there is documented evidence of his approval of the decision.

“Except for evidence of executive actions taken during the Biden presidency that shows that President Biden actually took a specific executive action, the committee considers those actions taken through the use of the pen to be invalid,” the report says.

Democrats and legal experts have warned that widespread scrutiny of executive actions could pose a future legal headache for the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, who also often enact policies directed by lawmakers through devices such as the presidential pen.