How Trump Fulfilled Barr’s Bloodthirsty Death Penalty Dreams

The Daily Beast
·2 min read
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Donald Trump and his former Attorney General Bill Barr were, and still are, out for blood, literally.

A recent Rolling Stone article reported that Trump had 13 people sentenced to death in the last six months of his presidency alone. For context, there were only three federal executions in the previous 60 years. And according to Barr, the only reason they stopped is because Trump was no longer president.

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Rolling Stone reporter Asawin “Swin” Suebsaeng, who co-wrote the piece with colleague Patrick Reis, came on this episode of The New Abnormal podcast to talk about that reporting, including what a bloodlusty Barr told them about those deaths, and what we can expect from Trump on capital punishment should he retake office.

“The single most chilling line in the piece was good Catholic Bill Barr saying that the only reason the administration stopped at 13 executions is that they ran out of time. That to me was the most chilling and upsetting, that’s just like pure evil,” says TNA co-host Andy Levy.

“He bluntly told us that, yes, the expectation and the plans were to add more people to the roster,” confirms Swin.

“Now, Donald Trump is once again campaigning to retake the White House in 2024. And he has once again explicitly said on the campaign trail that when he’s president again, we’re gonna be doing the death penalty again in a big way,” he adds.

Swin walks Andy through some of the 13 who died including death row inmate Brandon Bernard, and who (between Barr, Trump, and others in his administration) really kicked off the death penalty killing spree.

Merrick Garland Is Letting Trump ‘Get Away’ With Jan. 6

Also on this episode: Khalil Gibran Muhammad, professor of history, race and public policy at Harvard Kennedy School and co-host of the Pushkin podcast Some of My Best Friends Are…, tells co-host Danielle Moodie the one thing that needs to happen to stop police brutality, and murder, happening once and for all, and it comes down to one group of people.

Plus! Andy and Danielle share their thoughts on Fox News’ “disgusting” coverage of the Tyre Nichols murder and Danielle explains why the race of murderous cops really doesn’t matter.

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.

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