BMB Empower Network
December 27, 2024
On Monday, President Joe Biden, a proponent of ending the death penalty, made headlines by announcing the commutation of sentences for 37 out of 40 individuals currently on federal death row. Notably, the three individuals who did not receive clemency include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Robert Bowers, responsible for the tragic shooting of 11 Jewish Americans at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; and Dylann Roof, sentenced to death in 2017 for the horrific massacre of nine worshippers at a historic Black church in South Carolina in 2015. This decision means that two notorious white supremacist mass shooters and a high-profile terrorist remain on death row. Who could possibly take issue with that?
Oh, it turns out a MAGA Republican does, and somehow, it’s being blamed on Obama.
During a segment on Fox News, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) expressed her discontent with Biden's choice to spare the lives of these violent white supremacists. She also criticized Democrats like Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) for advocating for abortion rights while opposing capital punishment. To add to her grievances, she pointed fingers at former President Barack Obama and his administration for allegedly instilling a lasting Marxist influence in America. “So the sanctity of life is not something that she holds dear to innocent children in the womb,” Tenney remarked to host John Roberts.
In a display of flawed reasoning typical among some white conservatives, Tenney is resorting to a tired argument rooted in “whataboutism” and throwing around terms like “Marxist” that are often misused in MAGA circles by those who seem to lack a true understanding of their meaning.
It’s astonishing that Tenney is calling for Biden to be “consistent” while she seems to oppose the death penalty, yet criticizes Democrats for their stance against it and Biden for not being sufficiently opposed. Let’s set aside the absurd and scientifically unfounded comparison of the “lives” of non-sentient fetuses to those of fully developed adults.
Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 death row inmates. It’s clear to anyone with a modicum of understanding that the three who were not commuted were left out to avoid inciting outrage among the public. There’s arguably no worse message a sitting president could send to Black Americans than to spare the life of someone like Dylann Roof. Both Republicans and Democrats are quick to denounce antisemitism, making it politically untenable for a president from either party to allow Robert Bowers to live. As for the Boston bomber, Tenney should recall the national sentiment following that tragedy. Commuting Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s sentence would have sparked widespread, bipartisan backlash. While Tenney may label Biden as a bad Catholic, he was acting as a pragmatic president who recognizes the need for compromise.
However, it’s likely that Tenney’s concerns are less about the death penalty itself. Reports suggest Biden’s commutations were a strategic move to counter the anticipated Trump administration, which had pledged to resume federal executions.
If Tenney’s complaints weren’t merely partisan rhetoric, she wouldn’t be dragging in the name of a Democratic president who has been out of office for almost a decade. What relevance does Obama have in this discussion?
Perhaps Tenney’s real frustration stems from the fact that the lives of white supremacists weren’t spared.
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