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A spokesman for President-elect Trump hit back on Monday President BidenThe decision to commute the death sentences of 37 inmates on federal death row, calling the move “a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones.”
In a brief statement, Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, pointed to the different approaches to crime between Biden and Trump.
“These are among the world’s worst killers and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones,” he said in a statement. “President Trump stands for the rule of law, which he will return when he returns to the White House after being elected with a massive mandate from the American people.”
BIDEN sets record for first-term clemency grants, HERE’S LIKE OTHER PRESIDENTS
Social media erupted Monday after President Biden announced he would commute the sentences of nearly all inmates on federal death row. (AP)
The White House announced Monday that Biden commuted the sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Among the victims of the 37 men are law enforcement officers, children and other inmates.
“Biden’s decision is a slap in the face to the victims and victims’ families who thought justice would be served,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., wrote in X.
Many other Republican lawmakers echoed the same reactions.
Biden believes the federal death penalty should only be imposed for acts of terrorism and murders motivated by hatredthe White House said.
“When President Biden took office, his administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions, and his actions today will prevent the next administration from carrying out death sentences that would otherwise not be imposed under policy and practice current,” the White House said.
Three federal inmates whose death sentences were not commuted are Robert Bowers, responsible for the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 that left 11 people dead; Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who worked with his now-dead brother to carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds.
Biden said the measure would prevent the incoming Trump administration from carrying out the executions.
“I cannot in good conscience stand back and let a new administration resume the executions I stopped,” he said.
The action came after Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 homebound prisoners during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 40 others. including their son, Hunter.
As of Dec. 13, Biden has pardoned a total of 65 people and commuted the sentences of 1,634 inmates during his time as president, according to the Justice Department.
Hunter Biden flashes a big smile as he leaves an Arby’s in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. This is the first time President Joe Biden’s son has been photographed since being pardoned by his father. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)
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“The president has issued more commutations of sentence at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms,” White House officials said in an earlier statement.
Trump has taken a tough stance on the death penalty, previously suggesting that drug dealers should be eligible for the ultimate punishment.
“We will demand that everybody who sells drugs, who is caught selling drugs, receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” Trump said earlier this year at the campaign trial. “Because it’s the only way.”
