“President Donald Trump’s claim that the pardons signed by Joe Biden at the end of his term are now ‘void’ and ‘vacant’ began with an outcry among Trump allies about the former president’s mental capacity,” Semafor reports.

“Trump declared Monday, without citing any evidence, that his predecessor had not seen some of the documents that have his name on them. But that prospect was first invoked nearly two weeks ago by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Trump ally. Bailey asked the Department of Justice to ‘investigate whether it was Biden or others who took executive actions’ in his final days.”

“The following day, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project claimed on X that every document signed by Biden ‘used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year.’”

President Trump announced he was pulling Secret Service details for former President Joe Biden’s adult children, Hunter and Ashley.

“Donald Trump claimed late Sunday — in a middle-of-the-night rant on his Truth Social platform — that he’d declared the pardons that were issued by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, before leaving office to be ‘VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT,’” the HuffPost reports.

“The president claimed Biden’s pardons were signed by an autopen, seizing on a report last week from a right-wing group that alleged frequent use of the mechanical device in the Biden White House.”

Michael LaRosa, longtime press secretary for first lady Jill Biden, opened up to Tara Palmeri:

“There are some things that are true, like the gaslighting. There was a lot of denial of the polling. All of the polling in the spring of 2023, and then the fall of 2023, showed that there was no real depth of support from his own party, let alone independents and Republicans. And Biden had been tied, or within the margin of error, with Trump—who had, by that point, how many court hearings? How many indictments? The fact that he was so close was always a problem, but they were kind of in denial.”

“The message to everybody was to make sure you tell people, ‘It’s too early. These polls don’t mean anything.’ Then for about a year and a half, the numbers never moved, and by denying the data that was out there publicly, by denying and undermining the really insightful journalism that The New York Times was doing, that you were doing, and all of the free press, they were actually demeaning a lot of those people.”

“It was the data denial that really bothered me… Anyway, the point is that they did do a lot of gaslighting. If you were watching MSNBC, you probably believed them. But if you were consuming information, consuming data, and looking at it objectively, and trying to interpret it and process it objectively, none of it was surprising.”

George Clooney accused the media of dropping the ball when it came to covering former President Joe Biden’s “incapacities,” Mediaite reports.

He added that Biden “abdicated” his responsibility by “hiding his incapacities.”

“Former Vice President Kamala Harris has signed with CAA for representation in all areas, with a focus on speaking engagements and publishing,” Variety reports.

“CAA will work closely with Harris on her post-White House initiatives, creating strategic opportunities that expand her platform in support of the issues she has championed throughout decades-long career in public service.”

Joe Biden is viewed the least favorably of all current living US presidents — including Donald Trump — while Barack Obama is the most well-liked, according to new Gallup polling.

“Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that there has been no communication between her and former President Joe Biden after the former House speaker was asked about ex-first lady Jill Biden’s reported disappointment in her,” the New York Post reports.

“Just weeks after leaving office, Joe Biden is laying the groundwork for his post-presidential era in Hollywood,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“One of the entertainment industry’s biggest talent firms, Creative Artists Agency, which represents actors including Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, said Monday it had signed Biden to its roster.”

“In the weeks before leaving office, President Joe Biden and his advisers wanted to undo what they saw as an injustice—and make history—by cutting short the prison sentences of thousands of people behind bars for drug offenses,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The zeal to achieve that goal resulted in a haphazard White House process that prompted anger and dismay inside the Justice Department, where officials believed Biden granted mercy to many offenders with violent histories who didn’t deserve it.”

Matt Yglesias: “Of course, many good people served in the Biden administration. And the administration did a number of admirable things. But on a fundamental level, Biden defined his entire post-2016 political comeback in terms of averting the Trumpian threat to American political institutions. And he failed, catastrophically! It’s not just that Trump won, it’s that he has returned more powerful than before. It’s that we are genuinely much worse off than we would have been if Trump were narrowly reelected in 2020. It’s that Biden alienated an entire cohort of young people, along with many of the leaders of the most important companies in America.”

“And in his lame-duck interviews, Biden expressed nothing but arrogance about his political and policy choices. He even boasted that he believes he’d have beaten Trump had he stayed on the ticket and seems to be nursing a grudge against Nancy Pelosi.”

“The sheer bad manners of talking Harris down like that was the last straw for me.”

“The latest guessing game in Washington is where former Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, might go next. Half of that question has been answered,” the New York Times reports.

“Starting Monday, Mr. Emhoff will become a partner at the corporate law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, splitting his time between Los Angeles and New York. He will advise companies on crises including litigation and corporate investigations.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told CNN that former President Biden pardoning his family members makes it “harder to make a critique, to stand on the high ground and make a critique of the Trump pardons.”

“Among the flurry of last-minute pardons issued by Joe Biden in the final moments of his presidency Monday, a group of names was conspicuously absent: prosecutors and judges who have sought to apply the law to Donald Trump,” Politico reports.

“Trump has frequently mused about seeking revenge on prosecutors like special counsel Jack Smith, who led the two federal criminal cases against Trump, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the New York hush money case that ended in Trump’s conviction…”

“Neither was named by Biden on Monday as the recipient of a pardon, even as the outgoing president moved to protect other prominent officials who have sparked Trump’s ire.”

New York Times: “Republicans, in particular, pointed to Mr. Biden’s mental state and age as the top thing they remember. Many Democrats relayed memories of Mr. Biden’s kindness and empathy, while others cited the economy, at times in a positive light and other times negatively. A quarter of respondents could not think of a memory at all or declined to share one.”