A well-known conservative California sheriff joked that he was “changing teams” ahead of the 2024 election and urged people to support a “convicted felon.”
“I think it’s time we put a criminal in the White House,” Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a video posted to social media Saturday.
Bianco’s comments come after former President Trump was convicted last week of 34 felonies in New York, making the former president the first president convicted of a felony.
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks during a press conference at the US Capitol on May 15, 2024 in Washington, DC (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Bianco, who has openly hinted at running for governor of California, said in the video that he has done everything he can over three decades in law enforcement to “keep our community safe by arresting criminals and incarcerating them,” but lamented that leaders and California have become apparently pro-criminal in recent years.
“Over the last five years I have been very critical of our governor for cutting our corrections budgets, for releasing prisoners early, for closing our prisons,” Bianco said. “I have been critical of our state legislature for passing laws that make it harder to incarcerate people. I have been critical of their changes to laws that allow prisoners to be released early. And I have been critical of our attorney general for apparently not caring the crime.”
The sheriff came out to lament the “love” that state leaders “have for criminals,” which he claimed is based on a “belief that criminals are not responsible for their own actions.”
“They are victims of society,” Bianco said. “It’s society’s fault. It’s businesses’ fault. It’s the police’s fault. It could be my fault.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco kneels before protesters after thousands of them marched toward the Robert Presley Detention Center during a protest against the death of George Floyd during the coronavirus pandemic on June 1, 2020. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Bianco noted that state leaders blame the judicial system, laws and law enforcement for being “systemically racist,” leading to criminals being jailed as a result of their “prejudice.”
But now “they let them out,” the sheriff continued, saying that they give criminals “housing, they give them money, they give them drugs and alcohol now.”
Bianco added that he was “tired” of the problem before wryly admitting that perhaps he had been “wrong.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, center, listens to Sheriff Chad Bianco speak during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to recognize law enforcement as part of Police Week on Wednesday May 15, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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“I think I’m going to change teams,” Bianco said.
“I think they’re right, but I don’t think they’re doing enough,” the sheriff joked, before revealing that he thought putting a criminal in the White House would be a good idea.
“Trump 2024, baby, let’s save this country and make America great again,” Bianco concluded.
