Show-Me State Times

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called on former President Joe Biden to make public records showing his consent for staff to use the autopen in official matters.

“Today, I call on former President Biden and his staff: release the documents… Show us the documents where the President authorized the use of the pen for every single pardon and clemency and stay application. Let’s see it. Let’s see all of it. And if you won’t do it, we should subpoena those documents, and we should find out the truth of who was really running the White House because I think we can see it was not Biden,” Senator Hawley said.

Senator Hawley also criticized Democratic senators for their absence at the hearing, which addressed concerns about Biden's cognitive health. He stated that Democrats have not taken responsibility for what he described as misleading statements about Biden's fitness for office.

“All you have to do is look over at this side of the dais to see that the stonewall continues… Where are they?” Senator Hawley said. “They lied to us for four years, and we know they lied. They know they lied. It’s why they’re not here. They don’t want to answer a single question. They can’t bear to show their faces in public.”

Hawley has previously expressed doubts regarding Biden's mental capacity, including after the release of Special Counsel Robert Hur's report in February 2024, when he urged then Attorney General Merrick Garland to consider invoking the 25th Amendment or prosecuting Biden.