Trump admits to using autopen after declaring Biden's pardons void due to autopen

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President Donald Trump claimed without evidence early Monday that his predecessor’s pardons for members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol are invalid because then-President Joe Biden didn’t use a real pen. And when asked on Monday if he has used autopen, the president said he has.  For more context and news coverage of the most important stories of our day click here: https://www.msnbc.com/  » Subscribe to MSNBC: https://www.youtube.com/msnbc » Subscribe to MSNBC on TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@msnbc  » Subscribe to MSNBC on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/msnbc  Download our new MSNBC app for the latest breaking news and daily headlines at a glance: https://www.msnbc.com/information/download-msnbc-app-n1241692  Follow MSNBC Show Blogs  MaddowBlog: https://www.msnbc.com/maddowblog  MSNBC delivers breaking news, in-depth analysis of political headlines, commentary and informed perspectives. Find video clips and segments from The Rachel Maddow Show, Inside with Jen Psaki, Morning Joe, The Beat, Deadline: White House, All In, The Last Word, The 11th Hour, and more.  Connect with MSNBC Online  Visit msnbc.com: https://www.msnbc.com/  Subscribe to the MSNBC Daily Newsletter: https://link.msnbc.com/join/5ck/msnbc-daily-signup  #Trump #MorningJoe #JoeBiden

Transcript

00:00President Trump is admitting he has used auto pen to sign certain documents.

00:05The president made those comments just hours after he announced on social media

00:09he would void the pardons issued by former President Biden to members of the January 6th committee

00:15because Trump claimed those pardons were signed with an auto pen.

00:19So what is that? It's a mechanical device used to replicate a person's authentic signature.

00:24A lot of stuff for any president to sign, sometimes they use the auto pen.

00:27Here's President Trump yesterday asked by NBC News about his own use of auto pen.

00:34Have you yourself ever used auto pens, sir?

00:36Yeah, only for very unimportant papers.

00:39And I don't call them unimportant.

00:40If you do letters where people write in and, you know, they'd love to have a response,

00:44we'll write responses and I'll sign them whenever I can.

00:48But when I can't, you know, we'd use an auto pen.

00:51But to use them for what they've used them for is terrible.

00:57President, when you signed the CR.

00:58Who are you with?

00:59Sir, I'm with NBC News.

01:00Oh, that's the same one?

01:02I don't want to talk to NBC anymore.

01:04I think you're so discredited.

01:06Doesn't like a question, discredit the source.

01:08President Biden and Obama both use an auto pen device to sign official documents,

01:12a practice that is legally binding.

01:14That's according to a 2005 guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department,

01:19commissioned by President George W. Bush.

01:22So, John, for people who never heard of an auto pen and they could be forgiven for not,

01:26it's not thing we talk about a whole lot.

01:29Why is this controversial at this moment?

01:32It isn't. But those on the right tried to make it in recent days.

01:35And this is yet another example of something that emerged on the social,

01:38the fringes of the right wing social media to find its way to the Oval Office.

01:42And then Michael Flynn, Trump's former National Security Advisor,

01:45others on the fringe rights started putting out this idea last week,

01:49sometime that President Biden had used an auto pen to sign these last minute pardons

01:54that came in his last full day of office and some came the morning of his last day in office.

01:58And therefore they would be invalid. The pen wouldn't have legal binding.

02:03But, Mike, we know, I mean, as Willie just read,

02:05the government has found the Office of Legal Counsel has found that they're just fine.

02:09President Trump has used them. President Obama has used them.

02:12I remember that he also sometimes got in trouble for using the auto pen more for political optics reasons

02:18rather than suggesting something wasn't legally binding.

02:21But it's just another case of Republicans.

02:23It's a hypocrisy and be trying to, for Donald Trump, take shots at his predecessor.

02:28And again, in addition to that, what you just said,

02:31it's also part and parcel of the production values of this administration.

02:36Clear every day, every day there is something that they flood the nation with some obscure thing from auto pens to whatever.

02:45Every day there's an element of production in there to keep people's minds off of what is actually being done every day.

02:52Behind the scenes, that's not on the news.

02:54Yeah, but his his poll numbers are slipping because he's not paying attention to the things Americans care about.

03:01They you know, everybody wants to talk about what the NBC poll showed about Democrats approval rating.

03:07There hasn't been enough attention to what the poll showed about Putin's approval rating.

03:11So let me ask you a question. There's a longtime Democratic stalwart, Democratic senator.

03:16Why aren't the Democrats outside Social Security offices, VA clinics,

03:21hospitals, schools and supermarkets to document and talk about exactly what you were just talking about,

03:28the average life of the average American and what's being done with it?

03:31I think they're being I think they are beginning to do more of that.

03:35I think the key for them is to get outside of Washington.

03:38It's very hard for a senator to look in the mirror and go, you know, nobody cares what I say on the Senate floor.

03:43But that's kind of the truth. Given a speech on the Senate floor,

03:48typically just goes into the ether and nobody ever notices.

03:52But if you are getting on the local news talking to somebody who can't get their Social Security figured out

03:59because the branch office is closed down and there's nobody to talk to,

04:02or if you are someone whose child is going to a cancer trial with NIH and has a chance of becoming well again,

04:13but all of a sudden that's been yanked away.

04:15Those are the stories that need to be continually put on local news.

04:19And to whatever extent you can get them on national news. Great.

04:22But this idea that you're going to win the argument from Washington is not a good idea.

04:28And Donald Trump is concentrating mostly on revenge and retribution.

04:33He said he wouldn't. And that's what he's doing when he's not talking about invading Canada.

04:38And by the way, those stories are not partisan.

04:40Those are human stories. Those are Republicans and Democrats about the suffering they're enduring.

04:44By the way, even the New York Post disagrees with this move.

04:47Its latest editorial titled Mr. President dropped this petty push to void Biden's auto pen pardons.

04:54The Post writes, sorry, any such investigation isn't just beating a dead horse.

04:58It's digging the horse out of the ground and trying to saddle it.

05:01Voters want him looking forward to building that new golden age.

05:05Talking about Donald Trump, not back at old grievances.

05:08Sorry, Mr. President. Re re re litigating any of it is a gift to the resistance.

05:13Handing another stick to beat you with and the undermining of pardons.

05:17Signed via robot would require fact finding probes and court action

05:21when the new administration has bigger facts to find and larger issues to litigate.

05:26The Post continues. Trump has enough real work to do, especially on the economy,

05:30and has the support of voters to do it.

05:32Going down this rabbit hole would be shooting himself in the foot.

05:37The New York Post talking about Donald Trump's latest effort on auto pen auto.

05:42And also, let's just talk about his latest, his latest, latest effort to distract.

05:46Suddenly yesterday, just minutes after his auto pen screed announced that today

05:50they're going to release all of the John F. Kennedy assassination files.

05:52We have no idea what's in there. Allegedly 80,000 documents coming.

05:57But yet another effort quickly, you know, quickly deduced as let's just change the topic of conversation.

06:03Changing the subject still ahead.

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