By Dave Workman
The House Oversight Committee last week released a report on Joe Biden’s apparent cognitive decline and efforts to cover it up, which included the alleged misuse of the autopen, and now a new Rasmussen survey shows 52 percent of likely voters think the former president’s aides should be criminally prosecuted “for unauthorized actions during his administration.”
The House staff report, titled “The Biden Autopen Presidency: Decline, Delusion, and Deception in the White House, alleges that “Biden’s top advisors, political operatives, and personal physician concealed the President’s mental and physical decline from the American people. The findings reveal that as President Biden’s condition deteriorated, his aides exercised presidential authority and facilitated executive actions without his direct authorization, including misusing the autopen and failing to properly document decision-making processes,” according to a Committee press release.
“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” asserted Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in a prepared statement. “As Americans saw President Biden’s decline with their own eyes, Biden’s inner circle sought to deceive the public, cover-up his decline, and took unauthorized executive actions with the autopen that are now invalid. Our report reveals how key aides colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished. Executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen are null and void. We are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a thorough review of these executive actions and scrutinize key Biden aides who took the Fifth to hide their participation in the cover-up. The D.C. Board of Medicine must also review the actions taken by President Biden’s physician to hide his true condition. We have provided Americans with transparency about the Biden Autopen Presidency, and now there must be accountability.”
Key findings and recommendations from the report include:
- Biden’s Decline and Cover-Up:The Oversight Committee found substantial evidence that President Joe Biden experienced significant mental and physical decline during his presidency, while senior White House officials actively sought to conceal his deterioration from the public. President Biden’s inner circle, including top advisors and his physician, undertook coordinated efforts to mislead the public regarding his cognitive state, using scripted messaging, restricted access, and tightly controlled appearances.
- Gaslighting the American Public over Concerns about Biden’s Debate Performance and Cognitive Decline:Even a year later, President Biden’s former senior circle denies not only that his cognitive decline was on full display in his 2024 debate with President Trump, but that the public was ever even concerned about cognitive decline. In their view, public concern about Biden’s debate performance was about his “bad cold” and more general feelings about potential limitations due to his advanced age.
- Political Interference in Medical Decisions and Failure of Medical Oversight:Testimony from senior officials, including Jeff Zients and Anita Dunn, revealed that political advisors interfered with decisions regarding President Biden’s medical evaluations, explicitly rejecting calls for cognitive testing to protect his reelection prospects. Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the President’s physician, did not perform a cognitive assessment of President Biden and invoked his Fifth Amendment right when questioned by the Committee.
- Referral of Biden’s Physician to D.C. Board of Medicine:Chairman Comer recommends that the District of Columbia Board of Medicine review the actions taken by Dr. O’Connor while serving as the White House physician to President Biden for any potential wrongdoing in the medical care of the former president—including whether Dr. O’Connor produced false or misleading medical reports to the American people.
- Exercise of Presidential Authority by Biden Aides, Making Executive Actions Signed by Autopen Invalid: Senior Biden staff exercised presidential authority or facilitated executive actions without direct authorization from President Biden himself, including through misuse of the autopen and failures in documenting decision-making processes. The Oversight Committee found alarming deficiencies in the documentation and custody of the President’s decision binder, including instances where executive actions were executed without written authorization or clear record of the President’s approval.
- Referral to DOJ for Review of Executive Actions and Key Aides Involved in the Cover-Up: Comer is calling on the Department of Justice conduct a comprehensive review of all executive actions taken during the Biden presidency and is referring key Biden aides—Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Annie Tomasini and Anthony Bernal—for further scrutiny after they took the Fifth Amendment during the investigation, the House committee statement said.
All of this may have contributed to the Rasmussen survey results from the poll of 1,157 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on October 28-30, 2025 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
According to Rasmussen, “55% of Likely U.S. voters consider it likely that, when Biden was president, members of his White House staff used the autopen to sign documents without Biden’s knowledge or approval, including 40% who think it’s Very Likely. Thirty-three percent (33%) don’t believe it’s likely Biden staffers used the autopen without the president’s permission, including 18% who say it’s Not At All Likely. Another 12% are not sure.”
Rasmussen also revealed 79 percent of Republicans “believe it’s at least somewhat likely that, when Biden was president, members of his White House staff used the autopen to sign documents without Biden’s knowledge or approval.” Conversely, only 38 percent of Democrats and 49 percent of Independents concur.
Other key findings of the Rasmussen survey:
- Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans, 36% of Democrats and 44% of unaffiliated voters say that Biden’s aides should be criminally prosecuted for unauthorized actions during his administration.
- More men (60%) than women voters (50%) believe Biden’s staff used the autopen without presidential approval and, by a 12-point margin, more men (58%) than women voters (46%) favor prosecution for aides who engaged in unauthorized action during the Biden administration.
Workman is editor-in-chief at TheGunMag.com
