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President Joe Biden is on his way out of the White House, but before leaving office, the 46th president is keeping things in line with his administration’s moratorium on the federal death penalty by commuting the sentences of most inmates on federal death row. And because those death row inmates are disproportionately Black (38%) and Latino (15%), many view the move as a good look towards racial justice in a legal system where racial justice is scarce.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1871284742231822546
“I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement announcing that he would commute sentences for 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row, according to thegrio. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss.”
Biden, who vowed to abolish the death penalty during his 2020 presidential campaign, did not extend this slew of commutations to the violent white supremacists and terrorists who are currently on death row. Those excluded inmates include Dylan Roof, who was sentenced to death in 2017 after he massacred nine congregants at a historic Black church in South Carolina.
From thegrio:
Only three death row inmates did not receive commutations from the president: Dylan Roof, who fatally shot nine Black Americans inside Mother Emanual AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015; Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013; and Robert Bowers, who shot and killed 11 Jewish Americans at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Yeah — no matter what side of the death penalty issue you stand on, we should all be able to agree that certain offenders simply are not worth fighting on behalf of.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that Rev. Sharon Risher, the daughter of Ethel Lance and the cousin of Susie Jackson and Tywanza Sanders, all of whom were killed by Roof, disagreed that everyone isn’t worth saving and actually requested that Roof’s life be spared as well.
“I learned that my mother and my loved ones were gunned down by a white supremacist trying to start a race war. He is not an innocent man on death row, but he is a man. He has humanity, and I have been willing and worked hard to give forgiveness to [him],” Risher said. “I do not want him to die. To spend the rest of his life in prison? Yes. But not for him to die in the name of my family. We are urging you, President Biden. I hope you hear my words. I hope you get to hear the pain in my voice.”
Many people would say it’s fortunate Biden decided not to give Roof his life back despite Risher’s request. Black America would have been outraged, and rightfully so.
Meanwhile, advocates for abolishing the death penalty are celebrating the decision as a win for civil rights, especially for Black prison inmates who statistically receive harsher punishments than their white counterparts who commit the same crimes.
“By commuting these sentences, President Biden has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness,” said Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged the president to commute the sentences of federal death row inmates. (thegrio noted that Donald Trump ordered the executions of 13 death row inmates during the final weeks of his first administration.)
Jamilla Hodge, CEO of Equal Justice USA, said President Biden’s commutation strikes a “blow against racism and a system that has always targeted Black people.”
“This action, aligned with your more recent pardons, reaffirms our shared belief in the dignity and value of all human life and the possibility of redemption in everyone,” Hodge continued.
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President Joe Biden is issuing a record-setting amount of pardons and clemency in one day – and states that there will be more to come.
On Thursday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden was issuing clemency for almost 1,500 people sentenced to home confinement and 39 other individuals convicted of non-violent crimes. The executive action is the largest such act of granting clemency and pardons in the history of the presidency. According to the White House, President Biden had already issued more commutations of sentences in his term at this point than any other recent president.
A list of the 39 individuals who received pardons has been released by the White House, along with brief biographies for each of them. Many had been convicted of non-violent crimes and had “proven rehabilitation” through their actions afterward, with many serving in the military, and others serving their communities as nurses and addiction counselors. Some of those receiving commutations to their sentences are expected to be released this month, with others set to be freed in March 2025.
“My administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances,” President Biden said in a statement. According to CNN, Biden is in constant talks with the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney as well as White House Counsel Ed Siskel.
The action comes after the president was under constant criticism from politicians and figures on both sides of the aisle after he moved to issue a blanket pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, at the beginning of the month. Hunter Biden had been convicted on tax charges as well as a charge related to having a firearm. There is no word on whether the president will consider retroactive pardons for political figures who have been marked for retribution by President-elect Donald Trump once he assumes office in late January 2025. Another question will be if President Biden will heed advice from Democratic lawmakers to commute the sentences of the 40 prisoners who remain on federal death row in the nation.
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President Joe Biden has named 40 Black women to become federal judges, shattering records and creating a new legacy on the bench.
In the final days of his administration, President Joe Biden is following through on one of his campaign promises to make the federal judiciary more diverse, appointing 40 Black women to the bench. That mark was reached when the United States Senate confirmed Tiffany Johnson on Monday (Dec. 9), to replace U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in the Northern District of Georgia.
The appointment means that Biden has named more Black women to the federal judiciary in history, more than the 26 confirmed during the two terms of President Obama. This also includes his nomination of Ketanji Brown-Jackson, the first-ever Black woman named to the Supreme Court. During President Donald Trump’s administration, there were only two Black women who were among the 234 judicial appointees confirmed, making it seven Black people overall. The numbers are highly significant as Trump is making his return to the White House in January, determined to dismantle government agencies such as the Department of Education and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Having Black women judges means that “there is a different kind of voice that can come from the Black female from the bench,” said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor-emeritus Delores Jones-Brown.
Having this many Black judges on the federal level is also highly important due to their “cultural presence” in places such as the South. “There are still courts in the Southern states that still don’t look like … the people they serve because Republican senators have blocked all kinds of diverse nominees, or any nominee from the Democratic president,” said Alliance For Justice Vice President of Communications Carolyn Leary Bobb. The confirmation of Johnson makes her the fifth federal judge in the state of Georgia.
Among the 40 Black women federal judges, there is also the first openly LGBTQ judge, Melissa R. DuBose, who will serve the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and Cristal C. Brisco who will be the first Black judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. “Those very district court judges are usually the first ones to hear cases, and they hear many, many, many more than our circuit courts,” said legal scholar Lena Zwarensteyn, who noted that even their dissenting opinions carry so much weight.
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The move by President Joe Biden to pardon his son Hunter Biden has led advocates to make their case for former prosecutor Marilyn Mosby to receive a pardon as well.
The decision by President Joe Biden to pardon his son, Hunter Biden, earlier this week after previously stating he wouldn’t, has prompted advocates representing the former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to request one for her. “It is time for Joe Biden to pardon Marilyn Mosby,” said civil rights attorney and media figure Angela Rye, who is working on Mosby’s legal team. Mosby, who rose to prominence in 2015 for charging six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray, Jr., was convicted of mortgage fraud and perjury earlier in the year. Critics of the decision have maintained that the prosecution was politically motivated due to her racial justice policies.
“There are thousands of people who have been wrongfully convicted and sit in federal prisons today. While Hunter Biden was selectively prosecuted, he’s not the only one,” Rye said in a joint statement with attorney Ben Crump, who is also working with Mosby’s legal team. They point out that the application for Mosby’s pardon is still with the Department of Justice with proof of “receipt of the application on May 28.” That request is accompanied by 91,000 signatures petitioning the government for Mosby to be pardoned. The former attorney was on home detention after being sentenced and has appealed the decision. The Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland called for her law license to be suspended, but the Maryland Supreme Court dismissed that request.
“Marilyn Mosby is on house arrest right now with her law license hanging in the balance over purchasing property with her own money. Kim Gardner (the former East St. Louis prosecutor) was forced into taking a plea deal for a $5000 expense that was approved in an ethics opinion,” Crump and Rye wrote. They cited similarities in the two situations – the lead prosecutor in Mosby’s case, Leo Wise, also successfully brought charges against Hunter Biden for the purchase and possession of a firearm in 2018 and on federal tax charges. They also pointed out that the basis for Hunter’s pardon can be applied – selective prosecution. “They need to find a rule and equally apply it,” Rye stated.
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President Joe Biden is nearing the end of his term, and as that time nears, he has just weeks to make any sweeping orders before he leaves office at the top of next year. Hunter Biden, the first child of a sitting United States president to be convicted of a crime, was pardoned by President Joe Biden over the weekend, sparking critique from lawmakers and other figures on both sides of the aisle.
President Joe Biden issued the pardon of Hunter Biden on December 1 and the flurry of comments since the news broke have ranged from understanding a father’s position to protect their children to those bashing Biden for reneging on a promise to not grant his son’s clemency.
Not surprisingly, many of Biden’s opponents from the Republican Party had plenty to say, including President-elect Donald Trump. Trump took to his TruthSocial platform and called the pardon “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice” while calling for the pardon of 29 inmates at the District of Columbia Jail, who he referred to as “J-6 hostages.”
For comparison purposes, Biden has granted just 26 pardons in his time in office while Trump pardoned 143 individuals during his time, some of which were questioned.
Beyond Trump, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer spoke on the pardon and did not mince words.
“Joe Biden has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities. Not only has he falsely claimed that he never met with his son’s foreign business associates and that his son did nothing wrong, but he also lied when he said he would not pardon Hunter Biden,” Comer wrote.
Rep. Greg Stanton, a Democrat representing Arizona’s 4th Congressional District, took to X to blast the pardon.
“I respect President Biden, but I think he got this one wrong. This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution. Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers,” Stanton said.
Adding to the criticism from members of Biden’s party, Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio wrote on X, “As a father, I get it. But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback.”
Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas appeared on MSNBC and pushed back on the comments made by her colleagues on both sides and spoke in her usual direct fashion.
“So, for anyone that wants to clutch their pearls now because he decided that he was going to pardon his son, I would say take a look in the mirror because we also know that when it comes to this cabinet, this cabinet has more people accused of sexual assault than any incoming cabinet probably ever in the history of America,” Crockett said. “So we are living in unprecedented times, and we know that this was completely political.”
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Hunter Biden, the second eldest child of President Joe Biden, was pardoned by his father over the weekend in a move taken as an affront to the legal process by right-leaning observers. Earlier this year, Hunter Biden pled guilty in connection to a federal tax matter with President Biden issuing the pardon after previously stating he would not do so.
Hunter Biden, 54, was the target of false allegations concerning claims that Biden — when he was vice president — took a bribe to suggest that Ukraine fire prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to halt an investigation into Ukrainian gas company Burisma and to protect his son from charges since he worked on the company’s board.
Facing federal tax and gun charges, Biden admitted to lying on a federal form to obtain a firearm in 2018 as a drug user and was found guilty on three felony charges over the summer. The conviction made Bident the first child of a sitting United States president to be convicted in a criminal trial. Biden, who had his license to practice law suspended due to the conviction, was due to be sentenced on December 12 which no longer will happen after getting pardoned on Sunday (December 1).
Biden was a favorite target of Donald Trump and MAGA extremists during the 2020 presidential election cycle, harping heavily on the Ukraine matter despite little evidence supporting the claim. However, conservative pundits continued to seize on Biden’s legal issues and many are seemingly enraged that President Biden issued the pardon. President Biden stated the reason for the pardon was to counter the political motivations of his critics.
On X, formerly Twitter, MAGA Nation is attempting to turn the pardon of Hunter Biden around on President Joe Biden despite him leaving the office in January. We’ve gathered some responses and shared them in the list below.
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Right-wingers are expressing outrage over President Joe Biden’s rebuke of hateful remarks made at Donald Trump’s campaign rally, but many on social media see it as overwrought.
In a Zoom call on Tuesday with the Voto Latino group (October 29), President Joe Biden addressed the comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at the highly controversial campaign rally for former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, particularly his joke about Puerto Rico being “a floating island of garbage”. Biden expressed his displeasure, saying: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.” The verbal gaffe was seized upon by Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance who immediately expressed his dismay in a post on X, formerly Twitter, attacking Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris by writing: “This is disgusting. Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half of the country. There’s no excuse for this. I hope Americans reject it.”
Fox News aired the clip but selectively edited it to only play the part about the supporters to make it appear as if Biden was widely labeling Trump supporters as “garbage”. The clip has been shared heavily by right-wing supporters and media personalities such as Dana Loesch, who said: “Wow, the orderlies need to be notified. He has gotten loose, Joe Biden has gotten loose. Wow. There goes the ‘live, laugh love’ campaign of Harris, and post-Biden, there goes the dignity in the White House.” Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter that the ginned-up moment wasn’t “a bad October surprise”, continuing: “You may think it’s his cognitive impairment, but it smells more like an ingenious way to inflict long-overdue revenge on Kamala.” Fox News host Harris Faulkner also posted the edited clip, calling it “Sad for the country.”
But more pundits and observers called out those right-wingers as being hypocritical and trying to deflect from the hateful commentary that was evoked at the campaign rally on Sunday (October 27). The White House published the transcript of President Biden’s comments shortly after, partly published by journalist Jonathan Lemire who noted it was “being taken out of context”. President Biden also issued a statement clearing up his comments: “His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say.”
Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The…
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 30, 2024
1. Matt McDermott
2. Austin Null
3. Andrea Junker
4. Liam From Boston
5. Keith Edwards
6. Middle Age Riot
7. Texas Crude
8. David From
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Elon Musk has long inserted himself in the culture wars that have divided political discourse similarly to the current makeup of Congress, and employing his massive X platform as a vehicle for said messaging. The wealthy businessman posted and later deleted an X reply pondering why assassination attempts against President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris have not occurred in the wake of the latest attempt on former president Donald Trump’s life.
Elon Musk asked the question in a quoted reply on X via the pro-Trump @cb_doge account, which asked on Sunday (September), “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”
In the quoted reply, Musk wrote, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala [chin scratching emoji].”
The X reply from @cb_doge had well over a million views and several quoted replies from both supporters of Musk’s missive and detractors who felt the words were an incitement or invitation to would-be assassins. This has prompted users on X to get the #DeportElonMusk topic to trend with many replies pointing out what they feel is a divisive political stance.
Elon Musk has made no secret of his alignment with Trump after reinstating the business mogul’s once-suspended account and sharing glowing words about the presidential hopeful on his platform and beyond. Further, Musk is a strong proponent of free speech and uses his platform to freely express his views despite how unpopular they may seem to some.
A quick scan of Musk’s account shows him largely quote-replying to other accounts, especially those with favorable things to say about him or his many business endeavors. There are no signs of an apology regarding his quip about President Biden and Vice President Harris. In fact, Musk is framing the deleted tweet as an attempt at humor.
“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on 𝕏,” reads one X reply. He followed it with, “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text.”
On X, the #DeportElonMusk has several replies calling for the deportation of Elon Musk. We’ve got those reactions below.
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R&B singer Tyrese tried to have a moment as a political pundit, and it did not go well for him. After admonishing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for allegedly not doing enough for Black people, social media users proceeded to drag him to the ends of the “loud and wrong” universe.
It started when footage of Tyrese speaking to Dr. Benjamin Crump started going viral. In the clip, the crooner was being critical of Harris and Biden for passing an Anti-Asian Hate Crime Bill that allegedly leapfrogged the problems of Black people throughout the nation.
“President Biden and Kamala Harris signed an Asian Hate Crime Bill, which makes it beyond illegal to ever purposely or maliciously do anything to anybody in the Asian community,” said Tyrese. “And there was a spike in crimes and criminal behavior in and around COVID allegedly and specifically motivated by Donald Trump. So everybody started treating Asians… beating them, killing them, shooting them, stabbing them, hurting them. And then [Biden] gets into the White House and skips over every Black and Brown Mexican and Latino that has been getting killed like flies and he makes it a low: Asian Hate Crime Bill.”
Black Ty wasn’t finished. He continued, “There is a crime bill that was signed into law that protects Asians at all costs. Where is that same f*cking law to be signed into law when it comes to Black and Brown people? Because what you’re doing is—President Biden and Kamala Harris—what you’re doing is, you’re saying that Black and Brown people will continue to be disposable. That sh*t doesn’t make sense.”
This Biden and Harris helped Asians and not Black people narrative has been running on social media for a while, but the problem is that it’s highly inaccurate. And for this, Tyrese proceeded to get schooled by anyone with actual political awareness beyond memes and barbershop talking points.
Off top, there is no Anti-Asia Hate Crime Bill, it’s actually called the Covid-19 Hate Crime Bill. In actuality, there have been a number of bills passed specifically tailored for the defense of Black people that include the Civil Rights Act of 1969 and more recently the Emmett Till Antilynching Act a hate crime bill of 2021, which Biden signed. Many people are quick to note all this energy about Democrats not really looking out for Black people, yet most progressive bills (like the George Floyd Act) were blocked by Republicans.
What makes all this particularly frustrating to people who know better, is that all the intel needed to counter such misinformation is just a Google search away. Add to this mix that a loud minority of Black men are doing it, and it’s just the nastiest of work.
Worth noting, Tyrese also recently revealed that he was taking a break (“go dark”) from social media. Do some reading sir, respectfully.
Check out the lessons Tyrese is getting in the gallery. Consider it the hard way of getting knowledge on these Internets.
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Donald Trump attacked President Joe Biden for “sleeping all day long”, but social media quickly responded with evidence of him visibly asleep in public.
On Thursday (August 29), Donald Trump went after President Joe Biden for being sleepy in public, which prompted social media to attack him with visual proof of his own moments of dozing off at events. The attack took place during a campaign rally at the Alro Steel factory in Pottersville, Michigan, where the Republican presidential nominee attacked Biden, claiming that he was “laying on a beach, sleeping all day long.” The attack was a reference to a recent photo showing Biden relaxing on the beach at Rehoboth, Delaware near a vacation home that he owns there. “Do we have a president?” he asked. “He just got back from California. He was supposed to go to the White House, he never got there!”
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1829257164067877143
“Who the hell wants to sleep, and who wants to sleep in public?”, Trump said, adding: “He’s sleeping! Do you think President Xi of China is at a beach sleeping?” he added to the crowd. “Do you think Kim Jong Un is sleeping, from North Korea, with his nuclear weapons all over the place? They don’t sleep so much. But we have a guy sleeping.” The gathered crowd inside the steel plant seemed fairly receptive to the rant, although it wasn’t directed toward the actual Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Those who saw the footage from the rally online were quick to rebuke Trump’s attack on President Biden about sleep, noting his public siestas. One took place during his trial for election interference in the “hush money” case involving Stormy Daniels in New York City where he visibly dozed off in the courtroom, and the other occurred as he was listening to speakers at the Republican National Convention last month at the FiServ Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The searing quips included “Donnie Nappleseed” and “Sleepy Don”
Check out more of the responses to Trump’s “sleeping in public” remarks below.