Brian Kilmeade Challenges Alice Marie Johnson on Pardon for Rapper Whose Lyrics Included ‘F*ck Donald Trump’

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade challenged President Donald Trump’s pardon czar on the commander-in-chief’s controversial reprieves this week, including one granted to a rapper with a laundry list of violent crimes and a song including the lyrics “fuck Donald Trump.”

Alice Marie Johnson, who was herself a recipient of a Trump pardon in 2018 after serving over two decades in prison, was appointed Trump’s pardon czar in February. She presented the case of rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again for a pardon, which the president signed off on this week.

“What sold you on him getting a second chance?” Kilmeade asked Johnson after listing some of the charges that put him in jail, including assault and battery and firearm possession.

Read the exchange below:

KILMEADE: So A couple of rappers have come out or say one in particular. YoungBoy. One of his lyrics in 2017 that he put out is “F Donald Trump.” and some more disparaging things he had to say. Violent past assault and battery. Multiple firearm and drug charges. What sold you on him getting a second chance?

JHHNSON: I look at the age and how this young man grew up. He grew up in a very impoverished neighborhood. And the things that he had to face being a young boy growing up. Most of them were gun charges. Without the guns being discharged. But I also look at what happened to him on a set where he was filming a video and he had a prop in the set. That’s really where this came from. He didn’t come out of prison. He was given a pardon so he could have a new beginning. The officers who in this particular case they came at him as though he was a terrorist and he was on a set filming for a video. They gave him a gun charge for that. And he thought — the officers who did this were all investigated and fired. So I look at the elements of what happened to the young man.

Earlier in the interview, Johnson told Kilmeade that Trump’s pardon of reality TV couple Todd and Julie Chrisley came because they had been “oversentenced.”

“In fact, I know that they are going to use their voices and their platform to uplift the president’s agenda,” Johnson said.

Watch above via Fox News.