Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) criticized the Biden administration for the plea deal it reached with three prisoners accused of helping plan the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“Just today I heard that the Biden-Harris Justice Department made a deal with al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to avoid the death penalty. It was reported today,” Vance, former President Trump’s presidential running mate, told the crowd Wednesday during a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona. “Now, as someone who enlisted in the Navy to serve after 9/11, this is ridiculous, but not surprising.”
“Now think about where we have arrived. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have turned the Justice Department into a weapon to go after their political opponents by cutting a sweetheart deal with the 9/11 terrorists,” he continued. “We need a president who kills terrorists, not negotiates with them.”
The agreement was reached between Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi on Wednesday, the Defense Department said. announced in a release.
The three were jointly charged, along with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh in 2008 and again in 2012, for their alleged roles in the 9/11 attacks. Nearly 3,000 people died after the terrorist group Al Qaeda hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers.
The Pentagon did not provide further information on the details of the agreement. The New York Times reported that the three will be sentenced to life in prison, but that the possibility of the death penalty is out of the question.
The reported plea deal also drew criticism from other Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“The Biden-Harris administration has done the unthinkable: They have agreed to a plea deal with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, and two of his accomplices,” Johnson wrote in a post on social media platform X.
McConnell echoed the sentiment, calling the decision “cowardice.”
“The Biden-Harris administration’s cowardice in the face of terror is a national shame,” he said wrote in X. “The plea deal with terrorists, including those behind the 9/11 attacks, is a sickening abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.”
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