Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell derided Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin for several controversial pardons and commutations during his final days in office. Bevin, 52, lost his reelection bid to Democrat Andy Beshear last month.
“Honestly, I don’t approve. It seems to me it was completely inappropriate. I respect he had the power to do it, but looking at the examples of people who were incarcerated as a result of heinous crimes, no, I don’t approve of it,” McConnell said while addressing reporters on Friday.
Here’s Mitch McConnell criticizing Bevin’s pardons. He didn’t want to talk about Hobbs Act. pic.twitter.com/ayODbZ2kXM
— Joe Sonka ? (@joesonka) December 13, 2019
Earlier this week, Bevin pardoned and commuted the life sentence of Delmar Partin, who was found guilty of murdering Betty Carnes, a mother of three, in 1993, a co-worker whom he had been having an affair with. The coroners were unable to determine if she died via asphyxiation or by repeated blows to her head from a metal pipe. Her severed head was found in a 55-gallon barrel.
He also pardoned Charles Doug Phelps, who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and tampering with a witness. Despite the fact that Phelps’s phone had photos of minors performing sexual acts on it, Bevin called the conviction “long on duration, long on accusation, long on drama and short on evidence.”
Despite the backlash, the lame duck governor defended his decisions Friday on Twitter. In a 20-tweet-long thread, he said, “Not one person receiving a pardon would I not welcome as a co-worker, neighbor, or to sit beside me or any member of my family in a church pew or at a public event…”
17/20:
Not one person receiving a pardon would I not welcome as a co-worker, neighbor, or to sit beside me or any member of my family in a church pew or at a public event…
— Matt Bevin (@MattBevin) December 13, 2019
