Trump doubles down on death penalty for drug dealers

Former President Trump doubled down on calling for the death penalty for drug dealers Saturday.

“President Xi in China controls 1.4 billion people, with an iron hand, no drug problems, you know why they have no drug problems?” Trump said at a campaign event in New Hampshire Saturday. “Death penalty for the drug dealers.”

“You want to solve your drug problem, you have to institute a meaningful death penalty for… a drug dealer,” the former president continued.

This isn’t the first time the former president has called for the death penalty for drug dealers. Back in June, Trump notably advocated for drug dealers getting the death penalty in a Fox News interview, despite the fact it would have applied to Alice Johnson, a woman whose sentence Trump commuted in 2018.

Johnson had been serving life in prison since 1996 for charges in relation to cocaine distribution and money laundering. She was included in a Super Bowl advertisement for his 2020 campaign. 

“But she’d be killed under your plan,” Fox News anchor Bret Baier noted.

“Huh?” Trump responded.

“As a drug dealer,” Baier replied. 

“No, no, no. Oh, under that? It would depend on the severity,” Trump added

The former president would say after being pressed on the matter further, that maybe Johnson wouldn’t have committed the crime if she faced the death penalty for doing so.

“She wouldn’t have done it, if it was death penalty,” Trump said. “In other words, if it was death penalty, she wouldn’t have been on that phone call.”