WASHINGTON – Part of Donald Trump’s record in office – freeing convicts with long prison sentences for relatively minor drug offenses – has run up against one of his 2024 campaign planks: The death penalty for drug dealers.
Trump seemed rattled this week when told that Alice Johnson, a high-profile pardon recipient, would be vulnerable to execution under his new criminal justice proposal.
“Huh?” Trump said during an interview broadcast Tuesday when Fox News anchor Bret Baier told him that “she’d be killed under your plan.”
Johnson received a pardon from Trump shortly after she spoke on his behalf at the 2020 Republican Party convention. In 2018, Trump commuted her life prison sentence at the behest of celebrity Kim Kardashian West and other supporters.
Johnson had served 21 years after her conviction for her role in cocaine trafficking.
Trump and his aides promoted Johnson’s case as part of their “First Step” criminal justice reform bill, the subject of criticism from some of Trump’s 2024 campaign opponents.
During the Fox interview, Baier cited studies showing that, of 13,500 released under the law, about 12% have gone on to commit new crimes.
Trump’s stumbling answer to the question of Johnson and the death penalty drew much comment on social media.
A longtime supporter of the death penalty for drug dealers, Trump said Johnson played a minor role in drug sales and that his death penalty proposal would apply to major dealers.
“It would depend on the severity,” Trump said. “It would depend on the severity.”
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