Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) has criticized the Biden-Harris administration’s backtracking on a plea deal for Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans. Speaking to Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Saturday host Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, Vance said, “I think they realized it was a political disaster, right? I mean, this is the guy who murdered thousands of innocent Americans.” The plea deal was reached between military prosecutors and the lawyers for Mohammed and two accomplices, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, and signed off by a senior Biden administration official, retired Army Brig. Gen. Susan Escallier.
However, after the announcement of the plea deal, there was widespread backlash from 9/11 victims’ families, veterans, members of the public, and Republican and Democrat members of Congress. The deal took the death sentence off the table in exchange for guilty pleas to lesser charges and life imprisonment for Mohammed and his accomplices.
The Biden-Harris White House denied any involvement in the agreement, stating that it was learned about after Escallier had signed it. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin later revoked the deal, assuming responsibility from Escallier for oversight of the case. Vance expressed concern over this incident, stating, “I also think this shows that the right hand is not talking to the left, or to put another way, who’s actually in charge of the US government.
Vance added, “And it sort of reinforces what we already know, which is that no one’s actually in charge of the United States government right now. President Biden clearly isn’t capable. So so who is doing this? I mean, I guess maybe Kamala Harris, and it’s telling that they were going to move forward with this until the political consequences became pretty obvious.