'Vigorously pursue': Trump vows to ramp up executions after Biden commuted death sentences

Donald Trump vowed to "vigorously pursue the death penalty" immediately upon his inauguration.

The president-elect reacted to President Joe Biden commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 federal prisoners on death row with a social media attack Tuesday morning, saying Biden's decision "makes no sense."

About two hours later he issued his own pledge.

"As soon as I am inaugurated, I will direct the Justice Department to vigorously pursue the death penalty to protect American families and children from violent rapists, murderers, and monsters," Trump posted on his Truth Social website. "We will be a Nation of Law and Order again!"

Trump, who is a convicted felon himself, posted a screenshot to a New York Post report whose headline read that Biden commuted the "death sentences of child killers and mass murderers 2 days before Christmas," providing lurid descriptions of their crimes and photos of their victims.

"Biden, who opposes the death penalty, lowered each of the 37 sentences to life in prison without parole," the report stated. "He did not say why specifically he considered the original penalties unjust."

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The report further stated that "Christmas also came early" for one convicted killer and noted that another was "getting some holiday cheer" from the president, whose term ends next month. It reminded readers that Biden had pardoned his own son earlier this month and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who had been temporarily released from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The retiring president on Dec. 1 issued a blanket pardon for his own son Hunter Biden, 54 — wiping the slate of his June conviction of three federal gun felonies and his September guilty plea to $1.4 million in tax fraud from foreign business dealings in which he repeatedly involved his father," the Post reported.