Tipsheet

'You Had Eight Years with Obama': Trump Hammers Biden on Criminal Justice Reform

President Trump went after former Vice President Joe Biden's record on criminal justice reform, or lack thereof, during the final debate on Thursday as Biden helped craft the 1994 crime bill that has since seen disastrous results.  

Biden said the bill was a mistake and he has since been trying to rectify those problems.

"That’s why I’ve been arguing that in fact, we should not send anyone to jail for a pure drug offense. They should be going into treatment across the board. That’s what we should be spending money on. That’s why I set up drug courts which were never funded by our Republican friends. They should not be going to jail for a drug or an alcohol problem. They should be going into treatment, treatment," Biden said.

Trump then pointed out he was vice president not too long ago and Biden was not successful in getting criminal justice reform done when he was in office for eight years.

"But why didn’t he get it done? See, it’s all talk no action with these politicians. Why didn’t he get it done? 'That’s what I’m going to do when I become president.' You were vice president along with Obama as your president, your leader, for eight years," Trump said. "Why didn’t you get it done? You had eight years to get it done. Now you’re saying you’re going to get it done because you’re all talk and no action, Joe."

"I just have one question. Why didn’t you do it in the eight years, a short time ago? Why didn’t you do it? You just said I’m going to do that. I’m going to do this. You put tens of thousands of mostly black young men in prison," Trump continued. "Now you’re saying you’re going to get — you’re going to undo that. Why didn’t you get it done? You had eight years with Obama. You know why, Joe? Because you’re all talk and no action."

Biden then blamed how Congress was in control of Republicans, leaving out the fact Democrats controlled Congress for two out of the eight years of the Obama administration.