Donald Trump’s latest ad targets Hillary Clinton for being sympathetic to terrorists—pointing out her role in commuting the sentences of several members of the Puerto Rican terror group FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation).
The terror group was linked to more than 120 bombings and armed robberies in the 70s and 80s, killing nine and injuring hundreds of others. Among those killed was Frank Connor, the father of Townhall columnist Joseph Connor, in the 1975 attack on the Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan.
In 1999, despite promising the victims of terrorism that he would not “rest until justice is done," President Clinton just days later ended up granting clemency to 16 imprisoned members of FALN, noting that he felt their sentences were too severe for the crime, sparking outrage among the victims’ families and law enforcement.
So what’s Hillary’s role in all of this? Just two days before her husband pardoned the terrorists, Hillary, who was gearing up for her 2000 run for the Senate, was approached by Puerto Rican leaders in New York.
“Hillary Clinton launched her political career letting terrorists off the hook,” the ad begins before Connor appears explaining what happened to his father.
“I know Hillary Clinton didn’t murder my father, but I do know that she didn’t respect his life and didn’t respect the fact that he had a family,” Connor says.
“The fact that the Clintons, again, granted this sort of clemency without any real reason, and the recipients of the clemency never even petitioned for it themselves, just shows how the rules don’t really apply,” retired FBI agent Rick Hahn says in the ad. “Other than the terrorists themselves benefiting from this, there’s only one other person that would have, and that would be Hillary Clinton getting that Latino vote in New York State.”
The clemencies to Clinton were nothing more than a political tool, Connor says.
“She uses Americans as a political tool, and she’s got to be stopped,” he says.