Republicans can't stop talking about Joe Biden
[July 21, 2025]
By BILL BARROW and MATT BROWN
ATLANTA (AP) — It’s been six months since Joe Biden left the Oval
Office. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, can’t stop
talking about him.
The House has launched investigations asserting that Biden’s closest
advisers covered up a physical and mental decline during the 82-year-old
Democrat’s presidency. The Senate has started a series of hearings
focused on his mental fitness. And Trump’s White House has opened its
own investigation into the Biden administration’s use of the
presidential autopen, which Trump has called “one of the biggest
scandals in the history of our country.”
It all fits with Trump’s practice of blaming his predecessors for the
nation's ills. Just last week, he tried to deflect criticism of his
administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case by
casting blame on others, including Biden.
Turning the spotlight back on the former president carries risks for
both parties heading into the 2026 midterms. The more Republicans or
Democrats talk about Biden, the less they can make arguments about the
impact of Trump’s presidency — positive or negative — especially his
sweeping new tax cut and spending law that is reshaping the federal
government.
“Most Americans consider Joe Biden to be yesterday’s news,” Republican
pollster Whit Ayres said.
Republicans want Biden’s autopen to become a flashpoint
Seeking to avenge his 2020 loss to Biden, Trump mocked his rival’s age
and fitness incessantly in 2024, even after Biden dropped his reelection
bid and yielded to then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
He and other Republicans seemed poised to spend the summer touting their
new tax, spending and policy package. But Trump, now 79 and facing his
own health challenges, has refused to let up on Biden, and his allies in
the party have followed suit.
Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin called the Biden White
House's use of the autopen “a massive scandal,” while Republican Rep.
Nick Lalota insists his New York constituents “are curious as to what
was happening during President Biden’s days.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recently confirmed the
administration would pursue an investigation of the Biden
administration’s use of the presidential autopen. Trump and other
Republicans have questioned whether Biden was actually running the
country and suggested aides abused a tool that has long been a routine
part of signing presidentially approved actions.
“We deserve to get to the bottom of it,” Leavitt said.
Biden has responded to the criticism by issuing a statement saying he
was, in fact, making the decisions during his presidency and that any
suggestion otherwise "is ridiculous and false."
Congressional committees investigate
On Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee has convened hearings on
use of the autopen and Biden’s fitness for office. Van Orden cited the
Constitution’s Article II vesting authority solely with the president.
“It doesn’t say chief of staff. It doesn’t say an auto pen,” he said.
The House panel subpoenaed Biden’s physician and a top aide to former
first lady Jill Biden. Both invoked Fifth Amendment protections that
prevent people from being forced to testify against themselves in
government proceedings.
“There was no there there,” said Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell of
Missouri, a member of the committee who called the effort “an
extraordinary waste of time.”
The committee's chairman, Rep. James Comer, wants to hear from former
White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients; former senior
advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn; and other former top aides Bruce
Reed, Steve Ricchetti and Annie Tomasini, among others. Republicans
confirmed multiple dates for the sessions through late September,
ensuring it will remain in the headlines.
Investigations could crowd out GOP efforts to define Trump positively
That GOP schedule comes as both parties work feverishly to define
Trump’s start to his second term.
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President Joe Biden speaks to the media in North Charleston, S.C.,
Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
His so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” is a mix of tax cuts, border
security measures and cuts to safety net programs such as Medicaid,
a joint state-federal insurance program for lower-income Americans.
Polls suggest some individual measures are popular while others are
not and that the GOP faces headwinds on tilting the public in favor
of the overall effort.
A recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research found that about two-thirds of U.S. adults view the
bill as a win for the wealthy and another found that only about
one-quarter of U.S. adults felt Trump’s policies have helped them.
In the policy survey, he failed to earn majority support on any of
the major issues, including the economy, immigration, government
spending and health care. Immigration, especially, had been
considered a major strength for Trump politically.
It is “rather tone deaf,” said Rep. Wesley Bell, a Missouri
Democrat, for Republicans to go after Biden given those
circumstances.
“Americans want us to deal with the issues that are plaguing our
country now … the high cost of living, cost of food, the cost of
housing, health care,” Bell said, as he blasted the GOP for a
deliberate “distraction" from what challenges most U.S. households.
The effort also comes with Trump battling his own supporters over
the Justice Department's decision not to publicly release additional
records related to the Epstein case.
“The Epstein saga is more important to his base than whatever
happened to Joe Biden,” said Ayres, the GOP pollster.
Even Lalota, the New York congressman, acknowledged a balancing act
with the Biden inquiries.
“My constituents care most about affordability and public safety,”
Lalota said. “But this is an important issue nonetheless.”
Democrats don’t want to talk about Biden
With Republicans protecting a narrow House majority, every hotly
contested issue could be seen as determinative in the 2026 midterm
elections.
That puts added pressure on Republicans to retain Trump’s expanded
2024 coalition, when he increased support among Black and Hispanic
voters, especially men, over the usual Republican levels. But that’s
considerably harder without Trump himself on the ballot. That could
explain Republican efforts to keep going after Biden given how
unpopular he is with Trump’s core supporters.
Democrats, meanwhile, point to their success in the 2018 midterms
during Trump’s first presidency, when they reclaimed the House
majority on the strength of moderate voters, including disaffected
Republicans. They seem confident that Republicans’ aggressiveness
about Biden does not appeal to that swath of the electorate.
But even as they praise Biden’s accomplishments as president,
Democrats quietly admit they don’t want to spend time talking about
a figure who left office with lagging approval ratings and forced
his party into a late, difficult change at the top of the ticket.
Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said Biden was productive
while acknowledging he "was not at the top of his game because of
his age.” He said Democrats want to look forward, most immediately
on trying to win control of the House and make gains in the Senate.
“And then who’s our standard bearer in 2028?” Beyer said. "And how
do we minimize the Trump damage with what we have right now?”
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Brown reported from Washington.
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