The former president Donald Trump appeared confused in a recent interview, when confronted by the fact that his plan to impose death penalties on drug traffickers could have condemned a women he had pardoned. He also promoted her as an example of criminal justice reform during his administration.
Trump defended, in an interview with Fox News host Bretbaier, his extreme position, that drug traffickers must be swiftly convicted and executed. He praised countries such as China and Singapore, which enforce the death penalty for drug offenders. The Republican presidential candidate for 2024 said that capital punishment is “the only way to stop” drug addiction.
Baier contrasted this position with the President’s support of bipartisan sentencing legislation, the First Step Act that he signed in 2018. The host asked Trump to respond to criticisms that the reform resulted in the early release of individuals involved with drug trafficking, who then committed violent crimes.
View the latest videos at Foxnews.com
Trump stated, “But I focused my attention on non-violent crimes,” citing as an example his presidential pardon and commutation of Alice Johnson’s sentence. He said Johnson, who received a life sentence without parole for her involvement in a cocaine-trafficking ring during the 1990s, was “treated terribly” by the federal government.
Trump claimed that Johnson was primarily involved in marijuana trafficking, despite the fact that her convictions were primarily for alleged cocaine sales. Baier told Trump that she would be killed if he followed his plan.
He said, “What?”
Baier described himself as a “drug dealer”.
“No, no no, not under my–oh? Under that? Trump replied, “It would depend on severity.”
She’s technically an ex-drug dealer. She ran multi-million dollar cocaine rings. “So even Alice Johnson?” asked the host.
Trump stated, “She cannot do it.” He then said that she “wouldn’t be killed,” because his death penalty policy would not be retroactive, but “start now.” Then he made the argument that Johnson “wouldn’t have been involved in drug trafficking” if it was punishable with death at the time.
“She wouldn’t be a dealer.” She wasn’t a good dealer, because she was treated horribly. He said, “She was treated like me.” “But she was very unfairly treated.”
This exchange shows the ‘s enigmatic view of drug policy. Former president once said the country needed to “legalize” drugs to win the drug war, but now campaigns on a platform of aggressive drug warriors.
Trump, who has been praising his criminal justice reforms – namely the clemency granted to those he served in the White House – in the past, is now trying to appeal to voters by presenting himself as a candidate tough on crime.
has recently tried to link mass shootings with “genetically-modified” marijuana.
It’s not entirely different from the former New Jersey Governor. Chris Christie (R), a 2024 candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, has also pledged to crackdown on state-legal marijuana markets . He had previously promised to “end” drug war to a certain extent.
New Hampshire lawmakers reach agreement on creating Marijuana commission to formulate state-run sales model
Photo by Gage Skidmore.
The post Donald Trump defends his proposed death penalty for drug sellers before being reminded that woman he pardoned would be killed first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
