After the White House announced President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentences of nearly all federal death row inmates, Republicans criticized him for being “soft on crime.”
“Joe Biden is a confused, corrupt, demented failure. The White House has become a memory care facility while Biden is guided by his corrupt children and his Marxist staff. That’s why 37 depraved murderers get clemency,” wrote Senator Tom Cotton. , R-Ark., in X.
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President Joe Biden delivers a speech on the economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, USA, on December 10, 2024. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File photo)
Cotton is the incoming chairman of both the Senate Republican conference and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
House Majority Leader Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital in a statement: “Unfortunately, this is not surprising given that the Biden-Harris administration has allowed murderers and rapists to come through. of our southern border for the past four years. Joe Biden’s soft record on crime is exactly why voters impeached him and re-elected President Trump on November 5.”
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Senator Tom Cotton criticizes Kamala Harris for her refusal to be clear about her changing policy positions starting in 2020. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Violent murderers should not have their sentences commuted,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in X. “We must end soft crime policies.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, called the measure “a slap in the face to the families who have suffered greatly at the hands of these animals.”
While Republicans expressed displeasure, some Democrats celebrated Biden’s announcement.
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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (center), accompanied by House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (left) and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R) speaks during a press conference at the Capitol on Nov. 19. 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“The President’s decision today establishes accountability with a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole and ensures that these individuals will never again pose a threat to public safety, but without involving the myriad issues associated with capital punishment. He a long-time advocate for the abolition of the federal death penalty and to congratulate President Biden for this act of justice and mercy and for his leadership,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement .
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Rep. Jayapal applauded the Biden administration. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In her own statement, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said: “This is a historic day in America. We thank President Biden for this extraordinary act to spare the 37 people facing the penalty of death, a discriminatory penalty and fundamentally inhumane punishment. This is a powerful use of executive action to save lives and deliver justice.
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He had previously encouraged the administration to take such a step.
Biden’s death sentence commutations came after he had already commuted the sentences of about 1,500 people in the largest single-day act of clemency.
