Donald Trump Appears Confused by His Own Death Penalty Proposal

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Donald Trump appears tripped up by his own proposals to use the death penalty for caught drug dealers, having pardoned someone for drug-dealing offenses while president.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday, the former president and current Republican frontrunner for 2024 was left momentarily at a loss for words after being told Alice Johnson would be killed under his policy. Johnson commuted his sentence in 2018 and received a full pardon in 2020.

Despite his earlier call for “all drug dealers” to receive the death penalty, he later qualified that he thought the use of the death penalty in drug-trafficking cases would “depend on the severity” of the offenses. crime

Newsweek approached the Trump campaign by email for comment on Wednesday.

Former US President Donald Trump gives remarks outside the clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club on June 13, 2023 in Bedminster, New Jersey. In an interview Monday, he seemed uncertain about his own policy on the death penalty. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump’s drug policy has been framed as his response to a growing overdose crisis that has gripped America in recent years, fueled by waves of fentanyl—a synthetic opioid—and now xylazine—a veterinary tranquilizer.

According to data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there will be nearly 107,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2021—more than double the 52,400 recorded in 2015. During that time, synthetic opioids have risen as the leading cause.

The Republican primary candidate has linked this growing health crisis to the troubles the federal government is having with policing the southern border with Mexico. In the 2023 fiscal year so far, border enforcement has seized 164,000 pounds of drugs along the border.

“We will wage war upon the cartels,” Trump said in a speech announcing his candidacy for president in November, adding that he would ask Congress to draft legislation so that “every drug dealer, caught in selling drugs, to receive death. punishment for their heinous deeds—because it’s the only way.”

It’s not the first time the former president has agreed to such a policy, having done so before his commutation and pardon of Johnson, who was convicted in 1996 of eight federal counts related to his role in a cocaine ring. in Memphis, Tennessee.

“If we don’t get tough on drug dealers, we’re wasting our time,” he said while still in office in a March 2018 speech on the opioid crisis. “And that hardness includes the death penalty.”

In the Fox News interview, after Trump said Johnson was “high quality” and not being treated well, Baier responded: “But he would be killed under your plan.”

“Huh?” Trump responded, before Baier added: “As a drug dealer.”

“No, no, no, under my plan… Oh, under that?” Then Trump continued. “Ah, it depends on the severity.”

Trump insisted on pardoning first-time non-violent drug offender Alice Johnson and said she had been mistreated, but then Bret Baier pointed out that Johnson would get the death penalty under his new proposal. “No, no, no. Under my, oh, under that? Uh, it would depend on the severity.” pic.twitter.com/lHQxlPEZX4

— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) June 20, 2023

Later in the discussion, the former president emphasized that Johnson “will not be killed” because his policy “starts now,” rather than applying retrospectively.

On his campaign website, Trump promised to “take down the drug cartels” by asking Congress “to ensure that drug smugglers and traffickers receive the death penalty.” In 2018, he said the punishment would be targeted at “the big pushers, the ones who actually kill people.”

Johnson’s clemency was encouraged by Kim Kardashian, who met with the then-president in the Oval Office to discuss the issue on May 30, 2018.

A week later, Trump commuted the remainder of Johnson’s life sentence after 21 years in prison, before granting him a full pardon in August 2020.

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