Today’s Biden jailbreak

President Biden announced this morning that he would commute the sentences of nearly 2,500 inmates serving long prison terms for drug offenses. As the New York Times puts it, this is “the broadest commutation of individual sentences ever issued by a U.S. president.”

“With this action,” Biden brags in the statement attributed to him by the White House, “I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history.” Woo hoo!

According to Biden (so to speak):

Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes. As Congress recognized through the Fair Sentencing Act and the First Step Act, it is time that we equalize these sentencing disparities. This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars. I am proud of my record on clemency and will continue to review additional commutations and pardons.

In other words, more to come.

However, Biden doesn’t mention his own crucial support for the allegedly “discredited distinctions.” The Washington Post provided background in Elise Viebeck’s 2019 Washington Post story “How an early Biden crime bill created the sentencing disparity for crack and cocaine trafficking.” Biden declined to be interviewed for Viebeck’s story.

Was Biden wrong then or now? If possible, I’m going with both then and now.

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