DeSantis Decries January 6 Sentences As ‘Excessive’
Tough-on-crime candidate sings different tune with those who tried to overturn election
Ron DeSantis has been running to Donald Trump's right, taking aim at the former president's criminal justice reform law, calling it a “jailbreak bill.”
And he's been very clear that he endorses “deadly force” against migrants suspected of trafficking drugs.
But those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and tried to keep Trump in office illegally?
The Florida governor and presidential hopeful sings a different tune, going so far as to say that he would pardon those who attacked the Capitol, if he is elected president.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, former leader of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys, was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 years in prison for his role in the deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection.
Tarrio’s sentencing caps one of the highest-profile prosecutions related to the Capitol riot, and his is the longest sentence handed down in the January 6 cases.
The previous highest sentencing record related to January 6 was held by Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison in May.
The Justice Department said in the spring that more than 1,030 people have been charged in connection to January 6 in the roughly two years since the attack, and around 570 have pleaded guilty.
And DeSantis, who clearly is trying to curry favor with Trump’s base of voters, now is questioning the justice meted out for those who tried to prevent Democrat Joe Biden’s lawful certification as the next president of the United States.
“There’s some examples of people that should not have been prosecuted. They just walked into the Capitol. If they were [Black Lives Matter], they would not have been prosecuted,” DeSantis said baselessly and falsely. “Then there’s other examples of people that probably did commit misconduct, they may have been violent, but to say it’s an act of terrorism when it was basically a protest that devolved into a riot, to do excessive sentences— you can look at, okay maybe they were guilty, but 22 years if other people that did other things got six months?
“I think we need a single standard of justice, and so we’ll use pardons and commutations as appropriate to ensure that everyone’s treated equally, and as we know, a lot of people with the BLM riots, they didn’t get prosecuted at all,” he added.
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