The super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis (R ), Never Back Down, rolled out a new video hitting former President Trump over his commutation of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick ahead of Trump’s campaign stop in the Michigan city’s suburbs on Sunday.
The spot, titled “Welcome to Detroit,” details Kilpatrick’s sentence to 28 years in prison on corruption and fraud charges in 2013 and how Trump commuted his sentence on his last day as president in 2021.
The video alludes to how millionaire businessman Peter Karmanos relayed the clemency request to Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner before Trump commuted his sentence.
“For the elites in the swamp, that’s just business as usual,” the video says. “It’s up to the rest of us to elect a president who will put an end to it.”
Kilpatrick was one of over 100 people who Trump granted clemency shortly before he left office. Others included his former chief strategy Steve Bannon, rapper Lil Wayne, and GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy.
“President Trump commuted the sentence of the former Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Malik Kilpatrick,” Trump’s White House said in a statement in 2021. “Mr. Kilpatrick has served approximately 7 years in prison for his role in a racketeering and bribery scheme while he held public office. During his incarceration, Mr. Kilpatrick has taught public speaking classes and has led Bible Study groups with his fellow inmates.”
The video comes as Trump prepares to make a campaign stop in the state that he flipped in 2016. The former president is scheduled to speak at the Oakland County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner on Sunday. He is being honored at the “Man of the Decade” at the gathering.
It also comes as DeSantis and his allies up their attacks on Trump over criminal justice, seeking to portray the former president as soft on crime. Last month DeSantis said he would push to repeal the First Step Act, a bipartisan bill passed in 2018 and signed by Trump that reduced mandatory minimum sentences, expanded credits for well-behaved prisoners looking for shorter sentences and aimed to reduce recidivism.
