Oldrunningguy wrote:
We have already established that every accusation is always a confession. Of course a modern one is the Autopen of Biden. Which is designed to feed a narrative that Biden was so old that other deep state actors were running the federal government.
We don’t hear anyone talking about how many unelected and unconfirmed people are running Trumps admin. And they hold so much power that the actual presidential cabinet cower in fear to them. Musk and Stephen Miller top the last in prominence but there are many more.
Autopens have been in use for quite some time. The device was patented in 1803. The first US President to use an autopen was Truman. As long as the President endorses the use of his signature, there is no issue here. You are, however, correct, that Trump seized on Biden's use of the autopen to buttess his argument that Biden himself was not running the show due to cognitive decline. Biden is a terrible speaker. And he's old. He didn't do himself any favors on either count, and his administration didn't come up with a good response to that challenge. (In fact, his party kind of threw him under the bus by the time to story broke, likely because it had decided to move on.)
The President has latitude to appoint people to work in an unofficial capacity, as advisors and counselors. They can persuade him an influence policy without official title or confirmation. It's still the President's policy. Consider...every First Lady ever. None of them were elected or confirmed; many of them have made significant contributions to presidential policy. Did Bill Clinton's cabinet cower when Hillary Clinton drafted her proposal for government-funded healthcare? I doubt it.
Also, if you want to make the argument that the Whitehouse gets its marching orders from the "unelected and uncomfirmed," you would do better if you consider that it works both ways. Remember this?
That person wasn't elected or appointed, and he worked very hard to *oppose* the President's policy. That's a stronger case for shenanigans that should concern us, as those who serve under the President do not have to agree with the policy, but they have absolutely no right to sabotage it.


