The crowd in Simi Valley is a blood-thirsty one: the biggest applause line of the night at the debate went to Rick Perry’s full-throated defense of his state’s standing as the most executingest of them all. While Perry has been governor, 234 people that have been executed by the state of Texas.
The crowd loved that statistic.
Perry had no apologies for the number, and if anything seemed proud of it. Asked by moderator Brian Williams why the number got so much applause, Perry said this:
“I think Americans understand justice.”
