Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Sunday objected to President Donald Trump’s suggestion, the previous night, that convicted drug dealers face the death penalty.
At a rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania Saturday night, Trump highlighted China and Singapore as two countries that implement the death penalty in drug trafficking cases and wondered aloud whether the United States was “ready” for something similar.
Trump reportedly praised the strongman leader of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, in a phone call in April last year for doing an “unbelievable job with the drug problem” — though that effort has been linked to thousands of extrajudicial killings. According to official readouts of a bilateral meeting between the two leaders in November, Trump did not criticize Duterte’s violent war on drug dealers and users when he had a chance.
“Now the death penalty for drug dealers, is that something that you agree with, and should we be following China’s lead when it comes to criminal justice?” CNN’s Jim Acosta asked Johnson in an interview Sunday.
“I would say we probably should not be following China’s lead when it comes to criminal justice,” Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, responded.
“I’m a supporter of the death penalty but only when in those types of instances where we absolutely are 100 percent certain that the person is 100 percent guilty,” he continued. “I’m not sure it would be applicable to drug offenses.”
Rein in pharma. I like it.
Especially for drug dealers who hike their prices 5000%.
Trump dives so far to the right fringe, that it compels other figures on the far right like Johnson to, from time to time, make public statements that sound like common sense.
Who would have guessed Senator Johnson could ever say anything that could be near sanity!
Trump is so unpopular in WI now – even Johnson sees some utility in distancing himself. That WI voters had the chance to bring back Feingold and didn’t take it – I still can’t get over that.
Ruler for life and death penalty for being accused for dealing drugs! What could go wrong with that? /S