President-elect Trump's team on Monday condemned President Biden's decision to commute the sentences of 37 federal death row inmates, calling the move “abhorrent” and a “slap in the face.”
“They are among the world's worst murderers, and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a face-lift for the victims, their families, and loved ones,” President Trump's communications director Stephen Chan said in a statement. It's a slap in the face.”
“President Trump supports the rule of law, which he was elected with a great mandate from the American people, and will return to when he returns to the White House,” Chan concluded.
Biden's announcement Monday, less than a month until he leaves office, included an attack on Trump. He defended his decision before warning that the new government would resume executions.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump called for tougher criminal penalties, including the death penalty, for drug traffickers.said in 2018There should be “ultimate punishment” for drug traffickers.
The president said, “I cannot, in good conscience, allow a new administration to resume executions that I have halted.''
There are only three federal death row inmates not included on Biden's list: the 2018 mass murder at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue and the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting in South Carolina. and the death row inmates convicted of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2015. 2013.
In announcing the commutation, the president said, “I am more convinced than ever that the death penalty must end at the federal level.”
Other Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), also criticized Biden, calling it a way to slap victims in the face and make it “easy” for criminals. And Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) called the move “politically expedient.”
