Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) said the Biden-Harris administration only backtracked on a plea deal for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans — after realizing it was a “political disaster.”
“I think they realized it was a political disaster, right? I mean, this is the guy who murdered thousands of innocent Americans, and you have the Biden administration that is being harsher with a whole host of criminals that are just far less significant than the guy who murdered thousands of innocent Americans,” he told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday host Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle.
“So it was disgraceful that they did a plea deal here. They’re negotiating with him, but not with a lot of other people who I think frankly, are much, much more deserving of the Justice Department’s mercy,” he said.
The plea deal was reached between military prosecutors and the lawyers for Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and signed off by a senior Biden administration official, retired Army Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier.
After the plea-deal was reached and announced last week, there was huge backlash from 9/11 victims’ families, veterans, other members of the public and Republican and Democrat members of Congress.
The plea deal took the death sentence off the table in exchange for guilty pleas to lesser charges and life in prison by Mohammed and his accomplices.
The Biden-Harris White House denied that it was a party to the agreement and said it learned about it after it was signed by Escallier.
“The president and the White House played no role in this process,” the White House said on Wednesday evening, according to the New York Times. “The President has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter.”
By Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had revoked the plea deal and assumed responsibility from Escallier on oversight of the case.
Vance said the revocation showed it was not clear who was really in charge of the U.S. government.
“I also think this shows that the right hand is not talking to the left, or to put another way, who’s actually in charge of the US government,” he said.
“Why did the Department of Justice, enter this plea deal to get the Secretary of Defense was going to nullify it? This is something where you need a president who sits on top of all these departments, who’s actually coordinating some of those significant decisions of our government,” he added.
“And it sort of reinforces what we already know, which is that no one’s actually in charge of the United States government right now. President Biden clearly isn’t capable. So so who is doing this? I mean, I guess maybe Kamala Harris, and it’s telling that they were going to move forward with this until the political consequences became pretty obvious,” he said.
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