(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
Former President Joe Biden is speaking out — defending his use of autopen to grant pardons and lashing out at President Donald Trump and others in the GOP attacking his autopen use as controversial.
In a rare interview with The New York Times — an outlet to which Biden did not grant an exclusive interview for his entire presidency) — the former president insisted he made all decisions on granting pardons or clemency, even if the autopen was used to make it official.
“I made every single one of those,” Biden said. “And — including the categories, when we set this up to begin with. And so — but I understand why Trump would think that, because obviously, I guess, he doesn’t focus much. Anyway, so — yes, I made every decision.”
The Times reported that Biden did not individually approve each name on the list, but set up three categories of sentences he wanted reduced. Those categories covered; inmates sent to home confinement during the pandemic, some nonviolent drug offenders, and death row inmates.
But Biden made clear to the
“We know how vindictive Trump is and I’ve no doubt they would have gone after Mark for no good reason,” Biden said. “The general, you know. So they may read off his name — what’d I want? I told them I wanted to make sure he had a pardon because I knew exactly what Trump would do — without any merit, I might add. And you know, you know, members of the Jan. 6 committee — it’s just, there were no — I was deeply involved. I laid out a strategy how I want to go about these, dealing with pardons and commutations.”
The former president attacked his successor and the Republican party for pushing claims that he was incapacitated and not the one calling the shots.
“They’re liars,” Biden said. “They know it. They know, for certain. I mean, this is — look, what they, they’ve had a pretty good thing going here. They’ve done so badly. They’ve lied so consistently about almost everything they’re doing. The best thing they can do is try to change the focus and focus on something else.”
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