Brit Hume appeared on the podcast “Next Up with Mark Halperin” and criticized NBC News for its coverage of former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen, accusing the network of downplaying the issue’s significance.
NBC’s article highlighted that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky), who is investigating Biden’s autopen use for pardons and other matters, also uses an autopen for signing letters in his probe. Hume called the report misleading, arguing it conflates routine uses with serious applications.
“Nobody’s concerned about Biden using an autopen for letters or routine documents,” Hume said. “The issue is its use for significant official actions like pardons.” He suggested NBC either misunderstood the issue or deliberately pushed a false narrative.
When host Mark Halperin asked if NBC knowingly misrepresented the story, Hume leaned toward the latter, stating, “Young journalists hear ‘autopen’ and equate all uses in their minds, leading to these misguided stories.”
Hume acknowledged that the president’s pardon power is nearly absolute, suggesting that even autopen-signed pardons, if based on broad criteria set by Biden and executed by staff, would likely hold up legally.
He noted, however, that using the autopen for routine matters might still raise valid concerns.
Between December 2024 and January 2025, Biden manually signed only one pardon—for his son Hunter—while using the autopen for 25 other pardons and commutations.