Neera Tanden, former head of Biden’s Domestic Policy Council, admitted that she authorized autopen signatures without knowledge of who issued the final approval in a closed-door hearing before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday, according to Fox News.
In her role as staff secretary, before she was moved to the Domestic Policy Council, Tanden “was responsible for handling the the flow of documents to and from the President,” sending decision memos to “Biden’s inner circle” and affixing the president’s autopen signature to the documents when she received approval. Tanden was not privy to any of the decision-making process or who was giving the final approval. She rarely interacted with Biden. The system, according to her opening statement, was a relic of previous administrations.
Tanden denied that she had ever discussed the former president’s fitness for office, per Fox News. “I had no experience in the White House that would provide any reason to question his command as President. He was in charge,” she said in her statement.
When asked by a reporter after the hearing if there had been an “effort to disguise President Biden’s condition,” she quickly denied it as she walked away.
“Her testimony raises serious questions about who was really calling the shots in the Biden White House amid the President’s obvious decline,” Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement.
The hearing is part of an ongoing investigation into the Biden White House’s use of autopen while he was in office.
Controversy surrounding Biden’s mental fitness for office has only grown in recent months, especially following his cancer diagnosis. Even the left-wing media, who defended him for years, acknowledged his decline before he left office.
Earlier this month, President Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into Biden staffers and others who may have conspired to hide the president’s cognitive decline. To this end, the Oversight Committee is also seeking closed-door interviews with Biden’s White House physician, chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, and a few senior advisers. Comer has reportedly said that he is “open” to questioning former President Biden as well.
Jacqueline Annis-Levings is a correspondent for the Federalist. She is a rising junior at Patrick Henry College, where she is majoring in English.
