So, What Was The Plan?

Trump's latest move in the simmering autopen scandal raises a big set of unanswered questions. As he put it,

President Trump dropping bombs on Sunday night... pic.twitter.com/YEfeHnWTv4

— Rantingly (@rantinglydotcom) March 17, 2025

His premise is that some group of people put some pardoning documents together without Biden's knowledge, and they signed them with the autopen. So, who were these people? For now, the media is being cagey:

One Biden White House source told The Post they suspect that a key aide to the then-president may have made unilateral determinations on what to auto-sign. The Post is not publishing that staffer’s name due to the lack of concrete evidence and refutations by other colleagues.

The Biden aide, who did not respond to requests for comment, would frequently make mention of what “the boss” wanted, the source said, but compatriots would have “no idea” if it was true because the internal culture was to not ask questions.

“I feared no one as much as I feared that [staffer]. To me, [the staffer] basically was the president,” the person said. “No one ever questioned [the staffer]. Period.”

“Everyone” was suspicious of this individual exceeding their authority when claiming to speak for the president, the source said. “But no one would actually say it.”

“I think [the aide] was using the autopen as standard and past protocol,” The Post’s informant said.

“There is no clarity on who actually approved what — POTUS or [the aide].”

A second Biden White House source agreed that the person was suspected of assuming the then-president’s positions and handing down orders without it being clear if they actually had communicated with the commander-in-chief.

In the weeks prior to Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race last July, there was an emerging consensus on who was actually running the country:

President Biden’s inner circle has gotten smaller following his disastrous debate last week — with his wife’s top aide Anthony Bernal emerging as one of the 81-year-old’s key advisers alongside longtime confidante [sic] Mike Donilon, four sources close to or inside the White House tell The Post.

Bernal, 51, is a divisive figure for allegedly bullying and sexually harassing colleagues — and his influence was likened by three sources to that held by the mystic Grigori Rasputin over the family and court of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia.

. . . “Accurate and on point,” said a third source of the comparison to Rasputin, who was murdered in December 1916 by rivals who believed he was contributing to poor decision-making in the months before the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, in which the royal family was ultimately toppled and killed.

“Everyone has kept their heads down about Bernal and just tries to avoid him at all costs,” the third source said. “But everyone always predicted that this movie would end badly because of how he treats colleagues and always poisons the well for anyone else with the Bidens.

“He will go down with the ship but he’s also the one behind the wheel.”

One veteran Democratic aide went so far as to say “the country would be better off with Trump” than Biden if Bernal was helping run the government.

Oddly, the talk about Bernal ceased immediately when Biden announced his withdrawal on July 21. A web search shows several stories about Bernal and his influence on the Bidens during the spring and summer of last year, but nothing after July 21. So far, the official line has been that Speaker Emerita Pelosi drove Joe's decision:

Although Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Pelosi’s protégé, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, also told Biden about Democrats' concerns about him continuing his campaign, three sources told NBC News that any time the issue of his dropping out began to die down and lose momentum, they viewed Pelosi as the one fanning the flames.

Unlike Schumer and Jeffries, Pelosi is no longer on the Democratic leadership team and could afford to be more front and center in the effort to push Biden out after his disastrous debate performance last month.

“I think Pelosi continues to show she’s a master political tactician,” a House Democratic leadership aide said Sunday.

. . . In a private phone call a week after her MSNBC appearance, Pelosi warned Biden, 81 — someone she has known in Washington for more than 30 years — about the realities of the 2024 race: He could lose so badly to their mutual political foe, Republican Donald Trump, that he could damage Democrats down ballot and possibly cost them control of the House and the Senate.

How'd that work out? The master political tactician sees Biden's vulnerability, convinces him to withdraw -- and the race turns out pretty much as she thought it would have if Biden had stayed in. So who was running the country? What was the plan? Who allowed Anthony Bernal to set the agenda? Pelosi, the master tactician, the power behind the scenes?

It seems to me that Nancy Pelosi steered the Democrats to their current situation. She must certainly have known the full situation with Biden, but as far as I can see, the plan was simply to continue with how things were until things couldn't continue, at which point her plan was to keep going as though they could.

This autopen thing is going to get juicy.