FOX News chief political analyst Brit Hume on “Special Report” said it would not be good for Biden White House officials to insist that the president was able to make all the decisions.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS: Let’s bring in FOX News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume. Brit, good evening. You know, we’ve been talking about this for a number of days. This New York Times, you know, interview of President Biden is interesting in its timing and his pushback. What’s your thought of it? BRIT HUME, FOX NEWS CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, there’s some news in here in that he acknowledges that there were large categories of people that he had agreed to pardon or decided to pardon, and then he let his staff carry it out, and I guess by ample use of the auto pen, it would have been hard for him to do it with his hand because there’s so many of them. It’s not the way pardons are usually done, and it’s a little bit strange. But look, I’m not sure it would be reassuring to the American public to hear that Joe Biden was individually making all the decisions in his White House, given the condition he was in, where he was, at least much of the time, non-compass menace. So I think it’s, you know, this story, it goes on, and maybe they’ll establish that some pardons were improperly given, although I have my doubts, because the president’s pardon power is pretty absolute. He can probably do it any way he wants to. Yeah. So I think that’s kind of where we are. BAIER: I mean, the New York Times writes this. They said that he made the clemency decisions that were recorded with auto pen. He said Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and his aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for reduction in sentence. This, to your point, goes to something that House Speaker Mike Johnson talked about, about the president Biden’s memory. This is from January of 2025, talking about liquid natural gas, LNG exports, and that executive order. SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Sir, why did you pause LNG exports to Europe? And he looks at me, stunned with this, and he said, I didn’t do that. I said, Mr. President, yes, you did. It was an executive order, like, you know, three weeks ago. And he goes, no, I didn’t do that. He’s arguing with me. It occurred to me, Barry, he was not lying to me. He genuinely did not know what he had signed. And I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing, because I thought, we’re in serious trouble. BAIER: Who is running the country? So bottom line, where do you think this all goes, Brit? HUME: Come back to my earlier point that, you know, the White House, or at least the Biden White House aides want to insist, as does Biden himself, that he was running the country. I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t necessarily think that was good news, considering the condition he was in, as exemplified by the fact that he didn’t remember an executive order that he’d issued only weeks earlier.

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