Remark | Remarks | THE NEWSROOM | Republican LeaderSkip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELL×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELLxxsearchxMENUFacebookTwitterInstagramFacebookTwitterInstagramVisit Senator McConnell's site here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELLxxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMRemarks12.18.24McConnell On Push To Commute Mass Murderers:“No Legacy A President Should Seek”‘Let’s be clear what commuting these sentences would mean. It would mean that the laws passed by Congress and applied by our judges and juries have no value. It would mean that progressive politics is more important to the President than the lives taken by these murderers. It would mean that society’s most forceful condemnation of white supremacy and antisemitism must give way to legal mumbo jumbo.’ WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding President Biden’s pardons:“President Biden’s decision earlier this month to pardon his son may well have set a unique and unfortunate precedent. But abuse of the presidential pardon doesn’t stop there.“Last week, the President went on to commute 1,500 sentences. And the way liberal activists see it, he should have done even more.“More than twenty liberal retired judges – including the Boston radical who recommended the disgraced pro-crime U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins – have now urged the President to turn his eye to federal death sentences.“They claim that the federal death penalty is ‘rife with fundamental problems’ including race discrimination and poor representation of defendants.“But this is not just some theoretical recommendation about systemic injustice.“If the President heeded these former judges’ call, it would mean commuting the death sentences of the mass murderer who slaughtered black churchgoers at Mother Emanuel in Charleston…“…and the perpetrator of the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.“Are these men the victims of systemic racism? Did they have inadequate counsel? Of course not. They are mass murderers, guilty beyond any doubt whatsoever.“Let’s be clear what commuting these sentences would mean. It would mean that the laws passed by Congress and applied by our judges and juries have no value.“It would mean that progressive politics is more important to the President than the lives taken by these murderers. It would mean that society’s most forceful condemnation of white supremacy and antisemitism must give way to legal mumbo jumbo.“The irony of claims of systemic racism causing the President to spare Dylann Roof is ludicrous to the point of tragedy.“This is no legacy a president should seek.”### PrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER McCONNELLFacebookTwitterInstagram
