GOP congressman presses to change 25th Amendment after hearing Biden-related testimony

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., revealed Monday that there will likely be more information coming out about the autopen scandal involving President Joe Biden and a possible revamping of the 25th Amendment powers to  president who is mentally incapacitated.

The House Oversight Committee is conducting an investigation into the alleged cover-up of Biden's cognitive decline and his use of an autopen to sign sweeping commutations and executive actions. Department of Justice records show that Biden granted more than 4,000 pardons and commutations. By contrast,, Barack Obama issued slightly less than 2,000 during his eight-year tenure, and George W. Bush issued a scant 200.

"I think what you're going to find is that Joe Biden was a wanderer in the White House, [and] that there was no communication with anybody else of authority," Biggs said on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast. "I'm talking about cabinet-level officials. All this is starting to be revealed there."

Questioning authority

Biggs said that it was very likely that Biden had no idea who was using the autopen much of the time. 
 

"What else is going to happen is you're going to find that Joe Biden didn't know who all was running the autopen," he said. "I think you're going to find out that people were doing some things with the autopen that they absolutely had no authority to do."

Biggs, who has been sitting in on interviews with former Biden aides, said there may also be criminal culpability. 

It was reported in June by Just the News that former Director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the First Lady Anthony Bernal, former Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley Williams, and former Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini would appear for interviews to answer questions about Biden's health and usage of the autopen while he was president. 

Biden's former White House doctor, Kevin O'Connor, last month invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in deciding not to comply with a House subpoena to give scheduled, closed-door testimony about the former president's alleged cognitive decline while he was in office.

In response, Biggs suggested O'Connor's Fifth Amendment rights be obviated in order for him to testify.

The 25th Amendment

Biggs said that the 25th Amendment should potentially be revamped following what he has learned from conversations with the Biden aides.

Section 1 of the 25th Amendment states that if a president dies, resigns or is removed from office due to impeachment proceedings, the vice president will take over as president. The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures. 

"I also think you're going to need to revamp the 25th Amendment, because the way it is now, it incentivizes Cabinet members to protect and hide a debilitated president," Bigg said. 

Biggs added that the Biden autopen situation could also be used as a basis to have Congress weigh in on when an autopen can be used.

"I know we're going to be told that we have a separation of powers issue, but I do think that you can finesse that and get that through and say, 'Look, there has to be some kind of communication to Congress about the parameters of how the presidency is using the autopen,'" Biggs said. "Otherwise, that's an abuse of separation of powers."