In June 2018, President Trump passed the historic First Step Act, with bipartisan support—giving deserving prisoners a second chance at life.
According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), more than 1,000 individuals incarcerated in federal prisons were granted sentence reductions in the first four months the First Step Act was signed into law.
Troy Powell, a First Step Act beneficiary, left, reacts as President Trump invites him to say a few words during the 2019 Prison Reform Summit and First Step Act Celebration at the White House on April 1.
Democrats have taken a different approach when it comes to helping prisoners. Instead of helping them by giving them a second chance at life, and giving them the tools they need to succeed in a life outside of prison, they’re fighting to give them a chance to vote inside prison—of course, they’re assuming they’ll vote for Democrats.
In the midst of Joe Biden’s basement campaign for President of the United States, his VP candidate, Senator Kamala Harris was busy on social media encouraging her 5.7 million followers on Twitter to send money to a fund that would bail violent BLM and Antifa criminals out of jail.
If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020
On March 2, Democrats in the House attempted to pass a bill that would give voting rights to people serving time in jail. Although 97 Democrats voted in favor of the bill, it failed in the House.
After the bill failed, the newly elected radical US Rep Cori Bush, who authored the bill, tweeted about how the bill was tied to “white supremacy.”
For the first time ever, the House took a vote on whether or not to end the cruelty of denying incarcerated people their right to vote. Our amendment didn’t pass, but 97 Democrats voted with us.
We will not stop fighting until we dismantle white supremacy in all of its forms.
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) March 2, 2021
“The American people are probably wondering why Congress is wasting its time debating whether or not to grant convicted murderers additional rights,” said NRCC Spokesman Mike Berg. “The answer is because Nancy Pelosi and her socialist colleagues control the House of Representatives.”
As it turns out, Democrats don’t need the House to pass a bill to give criminals new and enhanced voting opportunities—Joe Biden can simply sign an executive order.
Epoch Times reports – Yesterday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order altering the way the federal government handles elections, including increased voting and voter registration access for criminals in prison and on probation.
“The order will direct the Attorney General to establish procedures to provide educational materials related to voter registration and voting, and to the extent practicable, to facilitate voter registration, for all eligible individuals in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” a fact sheet distributed by the White House states.
The order also directs the attorney general to help former prisoners obtain appropriate identification to satisfy state voting requirements. Biden is also asking the U.S. Marshals Service to include language in its contracts to facilitate voting by mail and provide eligible criminals information on voting and voter registration.
The order is meant “to promote voting access” by leveraging “the resources of the federal government to increase access to voter registration services and information about voting,” the White House fact sheet states.
“Every eligible voter should be able to vote and have that vote counted. If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote,” Biden said March 7 in his remarks to the Martin and Coretta King Unity Breakfast before signing the order.
The order also directs the heads of federal agencies to prepare a plan in the next 200 days for how their agencies can promote voter registration. Potential action items in the plan could include the distribution of mail-in ballot and voter registration applications at agency events and the use of agency websites to promote voter registration.
The order further directs federal agencies to take steps to become formal voter registration agencies under the National Voting Registration Act (NVRA). State agencies, like departments of motor vehicles, already serve the same function, and the NVRA allows for federal agencies to do the same at a state’s request. The executive order directs the federal agencies to assess how they can help with voter registration and to notify states that they’re available to help.
