Trump Calls for Drug Dealers to Be Executed — And Cites China’s ‘President for Life’ Xi as Inspiration – By Tom Porter (newsweek.com) / March 11 2018
President Donald Trump announced Saturday that China’s President Xi Jinping first got him thinking about introducing the death penalty for drugs dealers.
“We catch a drug dealer, death penalty. That’s it,” Trump told the crowd.
At the Pennsylvania rally for U.S. House candidate Rick Saccone — who is expected to lose to Democrat Conor Lamb – Trump hailed Asian countries, such as China and Singapore, where the death penalty is meted out to drugs dealers, He told the crowd, “It’s “a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.”
“Do you think the drug dealers who kill thousands of people during their lifetime, do you think they care who’s on a blue-ribbon committee?” Trump asked.
“The only way to solve the drug problem is through toughness. When you catch a drug dealer, you’ve got to put him away for a long time.”
Trump has recently come out in support of executing drugs dealers, suggesting that the punishment could be used to help tackle the opioid crisis. More than 64,000 people were killed by opioids in 2016.
On Saturday Trump promised that his administration would roll out unspecified “tougher” policies on opioids, and was reportedly met with cheers from the crowd of supporters.
The Washington Post reported earlier Saturday that officials at the Domestic Policy Council and the Department of Justice are looking into introducing legislation allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty for dealers. The White House said that Trump had expressed interest in Singapore’s policy of executing drug dealers
“Some countries have a very tough penalty, the ultimate penalty, and they have much less of a drug problem than we do,” Trump said during an appearance at a White House summit on opioids last week.
Singapore officials have reportedly briefed White House officials on their country’s drugs offense punishment laws.
Trump has previously expressed admiration for Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial crackdown on drugs dealers, which human rights groups say has led to thousands of extrajudicial killings by security services and police.
Shortly after taking office, Trump reportedly praised Duterte in a phone call for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
Trump in a recent humorous speech praised a proposed Chinese Communist Party measure abolishing the two presidential term limit, suggesting a similar measure could be introduced in the U.S.
PB/TK – Calling for a law to execute drug dealers better be well defined because the stereotypical street corner drug dealer is not the only one out there hurting families.
If I die from a prescription overdose or mis-prescribed or just because the doc writes prescriptions for anything, will he/she be executed?
What happens if a “drug dealer” is executed and somehow an investigation finds that he/she wasn’t guilty, was mis-profiled from the lineup, how much will that family be compensated?
Yes, words sounds awesome, it’s an emotional response, but with today’s opioid epidemic, there’s more to “dealin'” then a thug.
