Joe Biden has skewered Donald Trump after the US President ordered a bizarre probe into “who ran the US” during Mr Biden’s tenure, which was between 2021 and January this year
Joe Biden has branded Donald Trump “ridiculous” as he’s hit back at the leader’s move to investigate “who ran the US” during the previous presidency.
The current US President has suggested Mr Biden’s aides masked his predecessor’s “cognitive decline” and questioned the legitimacy of his foe’s use of the autopen to sign pardons and other documents. However, Mr Biden has quashed the world leader’s claims and called them a “distraction” amid his own criticism.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Mr Biden, 82, said today.
Mr Trump, 78, has already ordered an investigation into whether the ex-president was really running the United States between January 2021 and the start of this year, but Mr Biden has slammed this move.
The former president added: “This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.”
Referencing a massive reconciliation package working its way through Congress, Mr Biden rebuked his rival’s flannel. It is unlikely to halt Mr Trump’s move to examine Mr Biden’s legacy, though, as an alarming probe will commence into “whether certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden’s mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President”.
Mr Biden, originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania, also frequently used an autopen to sign official documents. This is standard practice and has been upheld by the courts, but Mr Trump took aim at this in his rant earlier on Wednesday. The former businessman questioned the validity of the autopen, a device used for the automatic signing of a signature.
It has been used in the White House, without previous controversy, for centuries since Thomas Jefferson deployed it in 1801. As technology has advanced, different models of the autopen have been manufactured, and thus used by presidents.
But Mr Trump has added it to his list of things with which to gripe about Mr Biden. His administration has taken aim at the politician and his team frequently of late, including last month when Mr Trump suggested Mr Biden’s delegates exposed the United States to “great danger.” The whinge again centred on the use of the autopen.
When Mr Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, shameless Mr Trump questioned how doctors failed to diagnose the man until after he had left office, pointing the finger at Mr Biden’s staff for “not telling the facts.”