DeSantis Vows to Repeal Trump’s Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform Bill If Elected President

Florida governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis told Ben Shapiro on Friday that if elected president he would seek to repeal the First Step Act – the bipartisan criminal justice reform bill signed into law by Donald Trump.

“Under the Trump administration, you know, he enacted a bill, basically a jailbreak bill. It’s called the First Step Act,” DeSantis said in a clip his campaign later shared online.

“It has allowed dangerous people out of prison who have now re-offended and really, really hurt a number of people. So one of the things I want to do as president is go to Congress and seek the repeal of the First Step Act. If you are in jail, you should serve your time. And the idea that they’re releasing people who have not been rehabilitated early so that they can prey on people in our society is a huge, huge mistake,” DeSantis concluded.

Trump signed the First Step Act in December 2018 after a lengthy push by criminal justice reform advocates including celebrities like Kim Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West. Decreasing mass incarceration in the U.S. has long been a bipartisan goal, which was reflected in the Congressional support the bill received.

In the U.S. Senate, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Mike Lee (R-UT) worked together to build a wide bipartisan coalition to pass the bill, which eventually passed with unanimous consent. Representatives Doug Collins (R-GA) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) introduced similar bills in the House.

The Hill noted that when Trump signed the bill he “touted it as a major achievement that would improve community safety and give a second chance to those who earned it.” DeSantis’s vow to repeal the measure is widely seen as a further attack on Trump’s conservative credentials as the 2024 GOP primary heats up.

Watch the full clip above.