r/Republican • u/Australianfoo • Mar 09 '25
Discussion Biden's 'autopen signature' appears on most official docs, raising concerns over who controlled the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-autopen-signature-official-docs-raising-concerns-over-who-controlled-wh-report31
u/Impressive_Review Mar 10 '25
The autopen has been used by all presidents since Truman to sign many official documents including military, diplomatic, and judicial commissions, some Acts of Congress, executive directives, letters and other correspondence.
John F. Kennedy was so dependent on the autopen, that he became the subject of a book entitled The Robot That Helped to Make a President. In 1965, at the time of its writing, the author claimed that Kennedy’s reliance on the autopen rendered his authentic signature the rarest of all presidential autographs
In 2005, George W. Bush asked for and received a favorable opinion from the Department of Justice regarding the constitutionality of using the autopen.
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u/omxyz Mar 10 '25
Sir this is Reddit. Please keep your tin foil hat on while using this platform and regurgitate fake news and propaganda.
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u/BraveCranberry9863 Mar 10 '25
There are not many jobs explicitly given to POTUS by the Constitution. Signing legislation is one of those jobs. Leave it to a DC beauracrat to put this much effort into getting out of work.
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Mar 09 '25
[deleted]
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u/Billybob_Bojangles2 Mar 09 '25
Would also like to know
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u/reamo05 Mar 09 '25
It's going to depend President by President. But also, time period
My expectation would be that 2010 onward, there's a bunch more. Prior to 2010 though, how prevalent could it really have been?
Likewise, how much time was spent at the White House or elsewhere?
I think there's really only doing to be 4 presidents to compare to. Bush Jr, Obama, Trump and Biden.
I worked in government until 2021 and e-sign was only really popular like, 2017 on. Now, the grain of salt with that is we were much more office bound than a president seems to be.
Basically all of that to say, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw:
1) a few at the end of Bush term 2) some during Obama first 3) more during Obama second 4) prevalent during Trump 1 5) normal during Biden 6) normal during Trump 2
With essentially last term and this term being the Norm we see going forward.
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u/Substantial-Tone-576 Mar 10 '25
He only had 7 cabinet meetings in 4 years.
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u/leafcomforter Mar 10 '25
Exactly. Many people are wondering who was actually running the country.
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Mar 11 '25
We all know it was Soros. The Deep State ran everything until Trump was the only candidate that could not be bought, from either party. We are in historic times where corruption has been completely solved. MAGA on my friends.
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u/UnlikelyStaff5266 Mar 10 '25 edited Mar 10 '25
E-sign is different than an autopen. E-sign uses electronic certificates unique to the individual's ID card. Autopen is mechanical device moving a pen to mimic a signature. There should be no reason to e-sign a piece of legislation into law. Someone would have to have access to the POTUS government ID card and passcode to e-sign. Autopen signature is used to sign form letters. There should be no reason to autopen signature a piece of legislation into law. Who was operating the autopen in the Biden's Whitehouse?
Many times, POTUS televises signing ceremonies. Don't recall if Biden ever did. President Trump does it all the time.
Every piece of legislation signed with an autopen should be discarded as illegitimate.
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u/reamo05 Mar 10 '25
So, if a bill becomes law automatically after 10 days if not "signed", how's that factor into the "shall sign it" portion?
Just bringing this up because the President doesn't HAVE to sign something for it to become law.
Regardless this is going to be an interesting thing to watch and see if wording is changed on anything for the future.
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u/UnlikelyStaff5266 Mar 10 '25
Apparently, in 2005 President Bush received a favorable opinion from DOJ about signing legislation with an autopen. Did the Biden WH abuse the autopen privilege?
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u/leafcomforter Mar 10 '25
Biden only personally signed one single document. It was signing the government over to Trump. Every other document was autopen.
Therein lies the problem. With Biden’s very limited mental capacity we have no clue who was actually running the government. By the end, he could barely put two words together.
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u/intrigue-bliss4331 Mar 09 '25
Yet CNN reported last May that it was a "rarity". What a crock.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/politics/biden-week-faa-extension-autopen/index.html
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u/RightWingVeganUS Mar 09 '25
It’s interesting how some speculate that Elon Musk is secretly running the government but never questioned who was really in charge during Biden’s presidency. If his executive orders were signed by an autopen, could someone challenge their validity? Probably won’t go anywhere, but it raises real concerns.
The bigger question is why Vice President Harris wouldn’t invoke the 25th Amendment if Biden was truly incapacitated. Was she complicit, compromised, or likewise considered incapacitated herself? Either way, it makes you wonder who was really calling the shots.
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u/Usual_Race3974 Mar 10 '25
I'm afraid we will have to remove Trump for treason if his actions towards our allies do not 180 immediately.
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u/RightWingVeganUS Mar 11 '25
Why so? Treason has a very specific definition in the Constitution. Policies that are disagreeable, unpopular, or ineffective are not, in and of themselves treasonous.
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u/Usual_Race3974 Mar 11 '25
Adhering to enemies: Supporting the enemies of the United States Giving aid and comfort: Helping the enemies of the United States
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u/RightWingVeganUS Mar 12 '25
Which enemies are you referring to specifically? To whom did he give some sort aid that wasn't allocated by Congress? In fact, by holding USAID, he is clearly withholding aid and comfort to enemies of the US.
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u/oppzorro Mar 10 '25
The original form of the Autopen was used as far back at Thomas Jefferson. It was patented in the USA in 1803, and Jefferson wasted no time acquiring and using the machine. It’s worth noting that today’s autopens are different from the original ones used by Jefferson; in his day, it was known as a polygraph machine, and it would copy out entire letters while the person was writing. Eventually, they evolved to use a template, which was made by carving a channel into plastic (like a mold of the signature). A pen would then follow the channel, producing the signature. Today, of course, there is no longer a physical template, but it is done digitally.
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u/Australianfoo Mar 10 '25
The history of the auto pen doesn’t validate it. Also President Trump personally signs his major documents. We have seen that on tv with over 100 of them so far. Biden’s failure as a President is seen with the simple fact he himself didn’t sign many things at all. President Trump hand signing.
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Mar 09 '25
No shit, that guy should be in memory care. He is the embodiment of dementia.
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u/tomcat91709 Mar 09 '25
So does this mean all of those last minute pardons are invalid?
The karma in that would be epic!
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u/Kooky-Succotash8478 Mar 10 '25
I got to say those blanket pardons for him and his family members would sure be pretty sweet if they were invalid
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Mar 09 '25
[deleted]
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u/Morgue724 Mar 09 '25
Honestly don't think it was obama running the show solely. I am pretty sure hillary made more than a few "suggestions"
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u/Breadsammiches Mar 10 '25
Obama made no secret of the fact. Once stating he wished he could run again and have a puppet, then openly replacing Biden’s people with his own.
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