Checkmate: Trump Flips the Script on Biden Amid George Floyd Protests, Using Biden's Own Record

By Tyler O'Neil Jun 04, 2020 11:34 PM EST

As protests over the horrific police killing of George Floyd devolved into looting, vandalism, and arson across America, destroying black lives and livelihoods, Democrats like presumptive nominee Joe Biden have attempted to accuse President Donald Trump of encouraging violence when he said the riots dishonored George Floyd and suggested bringing in the National Guard to quell the riots. Biden also rushed to condemn Trump for holding up a Bible at St. John’s Church, which had been torched in the riots.

Yet on Thursday, Trump flipped the script on Biden with one simple tweet.

“Sleepy Joe Biden’s 1994 Crime Bill was a total disaster. It was mass incarceration for Black people, many of them innocent. I did Criminal Justice Reform, something Obama & Biden didn’t even try to do – & couldn’t do even if they did try,” the president tweeted. “Biden can never escape his Crime Bill!”

Trump overstated his case, but he leveled an incredibly effective attack against Joe Biden.

Obama’s record on criminal justice reform

While it is not true that the Obama administration “didn’t even try to do” criminal justice reform, only President Donald Trump signed a bill passed by Congress addressing important reforms.

The Obama administration’s work on criminal justice reform was mostly limited to commutations and changes in administrative procedures.

If Biden Doesn’t Understand the Rule of Law, How Can He Serve as Commander-in-Chief?

Obama issued clemency to nearly 1,000 inmates during his tenure, more than his last three predecessors combined. His administration created a presidential commission to study mass incarceration in 2014, releasing a report in May 2015. The Obama administration also established a commission to review federal prison funding and the use of military-grade equipment by law enforcement. That administration also changed federal policy to ban the question asking applicants for federal government work whether or not they’ve been convicted of a crime.

Trump’s record

Obama’s long list of commutations seems impressive, but only three of his commutations came during his first term. So far, Trump has issued nine commutations. Among the commutations was Alice Marie Johnson, a nonviolent drug offender who helped lead a multimillion-dollar cocaine ring from 1991 to 1994. She was convicted in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison, an arguably overharsh sentence. Among others, Kim Kardashian pleaded with Trump to commute her sentence after she had spent more than 20 years in prison.

While it is not true that Obama “didn’t even try” to achieve criminal justice reform, it is true that President Trump actually signed a law on the issue — the First Step Act — while Obama did not. This is a much more significant achievement than the Obama administration’s tinkering around the edges. Liberal critics have claimed Trump’s administration has undermined the First Step Act, but they cannot deny this key legislative achievement. Trump has also promised a “Second Step” will be forthcoming.

As Obama wrote this week, the most important kind of criminal justice reform happens at the local level. The cases of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor illustrate different kinds of abuse of police power, each of which can be most easily reversed on the local level. Americans should demand that police officers not develop an “old boys club” that shields police and their families from the same laws that apply to other citizens. In many cases, police unions protect bad cops when they should not.

It is important, however, to have true criminal justice reform — not anti-police activism masquerading as criminal justice reform, which has done so much damage in Chicago.

The true brilliance of Trump’s tweet has less to do with the president’s record and more to do with the record of Joe Biden. Criminal justice reform advocates are working to fix a system created in the 1980s and 1990s and spearheaded by none other than Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., the senator from the Great State of Delaware.

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https://pjmedia.com/election/tyler-o-neil/2020/06/04/checkmate-trump-flips-the-script-on-biden-amid-george-floyd-protests-using-bidens-own-record-n496240