DES MOINES, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump’s rivals accuse him of being soft on crime in an attempt to chip away at the tough-talking front-runner’s substantial lead for the Republican presidential nomination.
The charge that Mr. Trump coddles criminals stems from his most celebrated bipartisan win as president: The First Step Act, which cut prison sentences for some convicts, giving them another chance on the outside while reducing inmate populations.
But rising crime rates — and suggestions that some people released thanks to the law have returned to crime — have taken the sheen off Mr. Trump’s accomplishment and created an opening for other Republican presidential hopefuls.
Mr. Trump’s legal woes, including federal felony charges of mishandling government secrets and obstructing justice, have added another layer to the soft-on-crime attacks now that he’s an alleged criminal.
Leading the assault on Mr. Trump’s tough-on-crime credentials is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He dubbed the First Step Act the “jailbreak bill” and vowed to repeal it if he wins the White House.
Analysts say the governor may be onto something.
“Definitely, Trump’s stance on those sorts of issues is sort of off-diagonal for the base,” said Clifford Young, president of U.S. public affairs at Ipsos polling. “There is a strong law and order positioning with the GOP primary voters. There is probably some traction there.”
The law was passed in 2018 when the GOP controlled the White House and Congress. At the time, crime rates were dropping and there was a generosity of spirit toward some who were caught up in the justice system and suffering long prison sentences.
“Americans from across the political spectrum can unite around prison reform legislation that will reduce crime while giving our fellow citizens a chance at redemption,” Mr. Trump said as the law was making its way through Congress. “So if something happens and they make a mistake, they get a second chance at life.”
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian joined Mr. Trump to promote the idea. It drew significant bipartisan support.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, both 2024 GOP presidential contenders, were part of the ceremony when Mr. Trump signed the bill into law. So was Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the godfather of the Iowa GOP politics, as well as top law enforcement officials and members of the religious right.
But a rise in violent crime since the pandemic hit has led to a reevaluation of the law.
“That bill let criminals out of jail early for even serious violent offenses like child molestation, bank robbery, assaulting a police officer — and yes, carjacking,” Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Republican, said on the Senate floor earlier this year.
Mr. Cotton, who opposed the law in 2018, said that under the act federal criminals were about 15% more likely to have their sentence cut down for “so-called good behavior.”
He called it an “egregious law that made clear too many of our elected officials no longer takes serious crime seriously.”
Mr. Pence also has had a change of heart.
“I think we need to take a step back and rethink the First Step Act,” Mr. Pence said at a CNN town hall shortly after launching his presidential bid in Iowa. “We’ve got a crime wave in our major cities and I think now more than ever, we ought to be thinking about how we make penalties tougher on people that are victimizing families in this country.”
Mr. Pence delivered a different message at the 2018 bill signing ceremony at the White House when he praised Mr. Trump for pushing through changes to criminal justice that he said would make “the nation safer.”
The Department of Justice’s 2023 annual report on the program found 12.4% of prisoners released under the law returned to a life of crime. That includes 23.6% of inmates originally convicted on weapons and explosive charges and 23.8% for homicide and aggravated assault.
Another startling stat: 45% of inmates released from high-security facilities committed another crime.
The report, however, said the First Step Act recidivism rates “are lower than average rates in the United States, though higher than the rates in last year’s Report.”
The jury is out on whether the criticism will help Mr. DeSantis and others chip away at Mr. Trump’s support among GOP voters, who generally support a tougher approach to crime but also have been willing to follow Mr. Trump into new ideological territory.
Polls show a majority of Republicans believe the national media should be paying more attention to the issue of crime.
A recent Economist YouGov survey found more than 8 in 10 Republicans and self-identified conservatives said the issue of crime was “very important” to them.
But just 2% of Republican and self-identified conservatives placed crime as their top issue, ranking it far behind concerns related to inflation, immigration and the economy.
The Trump team has felt compelled to respond to the criticism, saying Mr. DeSantis was for the First Step Act plan before he was against it.
Indeed, Mr. DeSantis, who voted with Mr. Trump 94% of the time as a member of the House, supported the initial version of the First Step Act plan when he was still a congressman in May 2018.
Mr. DeSantis, who had Trump’s endorsement at the time, resigned from Congress after winning his primary for governor before the final December vote on the bill.
His camp now says Mr. DeSantis would not have backed the final measure because it was “far more liberal than the original house bill DeSantis voted on.”
Mr. DeSantis as governor went on to pass a series of tough-on-crime laws that his campaign is now leaning into in an attempt to distance him from Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump also has staked out a tough-on-crime agenda in his third run for the presidency and looked to poke holes in Mr. DeSantis’ record.
“MAGA Inc. is trying to accuse @RonDeSantis — who enacted the strictest penalties ever for drug traffickers and fentanyl dealers — of being soft on crime, to deflect from the Trump-Kardashian jailbreak law that released sex offenders from prison early,” Christina Pushaw, a longtime DeSantis aide, tweeted recently.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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