Yes, he is a big fan of the death penalty and summary executions. What else is new?
by digby
We have a new entry for the “both sides” hall of fame: Trump says summary executions are good but “rights groups say” they’re bad.https://t.co/jsbqt2XZi7 pic.twitter.com/N9fcJ0aFY8— Adam Jentleson 🎈 (@AJentleson) February 16, 2019
He said there should be the death penalty for drug dealers, not summary execution. Of course, that’s also bad.
President Trump spoke fondly again on Friday about the practice — popular among some anti-Democratic leaders — of executing drug traffickers.
Speaking at the White House to announce that he was declaring a national emergency to secure funding to build his long-promised border wall, Trump digressed to speak about a recent conversation he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Their criminal list — a drug dealer gets a thing called the death penalty,” he said of China. “Our criminal list a drug dealer gets a thing called: How about a fine?”
Trump continued: “When I asked President Xi, I said, ‘You have a drug problem?’ No no no.” I said, ‘You have 1.4 billion people, what do you mean you have no drug problem?’ No we don’t have a drug problem. I said, ‘Why?’ Death penalty,” Trump said, imitating someone who speaks broken English. “We give death penalty to people who sell drugs. End of problem.”
Trump has repeatedly praised authoritarian leaders around the world and shown a particular affinity for the punitive measures some have used against drug traffickers and users.
Last winter, he told an audience in Pennsylvania that discussions about instituting the death penalty for drug dealers was “a discussion we have to start thinking about,” again saying he got the idea from Xi. Trump previously suggested the death penalty was a way to fight the opioid epidemic.
He’s for summary execution as well. It’s one of the issues he ran on. He said this over and over again on the stump:
“We get a traitor like Bergdahl, a dirty rotten traitor, who by the way when he deserted, six young beautiful people were killed trying to find him. And you don’t even hear about him anymore. Somebody said the other day, well, he had some psychological problems. You know, in the old days … bing – bong [pantomimes shooting]
When we were strong, when we were strong.”
Recall that he also said the psychopath leader of the Philipines, Ricardo Duterte, handled his drug problem “the right way.”
There have been over 10,000 drug users executed extra-judicially.
So…
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