The 63-year-old woman who had her life sentence in prison commuted by President Donald Trump last year is thankful to God and to the president who saw her “as a human being.”
Alice Marie Johnson spoke about her journey from a hopeless lifetime behind bars for a first time, non-violent drug offense to being a Trump’s guest at this year’s State of the Union address, telling “Fox & Friends” host Ainsley Earhardt that her faith in God got her through the more than two decades she spent in prison.
(Video: Fox News)
The great-grandmother detailed her story in a new book, “After Life,” and told Earhardt that she “knew that God was going to get me out” throughout her time in prison. Johnson was serving a life sentence after being arrested in 1993, and being convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering in 1996.
“I should have had some time in prison. I’m not saying that I was not guilty of committing a crime. I’m saying that the time did not fit the crime. The first thing that people say is if you do the crime, you should do the time. But my answer to that is that time should be fair and just based on the crime and not just rubber stamped,” Johnson told Earhardt.
Reality television star Kim Kardashian West brought Johnson’s case, as well as others, before Trump last year, earning plenty of backlash from the left before Johnson’s release and the happy ending made headlines just a few days later.
Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing. pic.twitter.com/uOy4UJ41JF
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
“All I can say is thank you President Trump. And I love you President Trump. Thank you,” Johnson said after her release and reunion with her family last year.
Trump’s actions on behalf of Johnson and others as he moved toward the sweeping prison reform bill he would usher in with the First Step Act this year blew the lid off of the left’s narrative about the president being racist and a white supremacist.
The recent pardons of @realDonaldTrump don’t exactly support the left’s claim that he’s a racist & white supremacist pic.twitter.com/YzOrurYlzi
— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) June 6, 2018
Shortly after her release last year, Johnson had revealed how she had a “feeling of betrayal” when she found herself still in prison after former President Barack Obama left office.
“From what everyone was saying, the Obama administration would be the one that would set you free, but I was still not set free. So to put your faith in a man was not a good thing to do,” Johnson told a group at George Washington University at the time.
#Trump Gave Clemency To #AliceMarieJohnson#Obama Turned Her Clemency Down …#AfterLife#AliceJohnson pic.twitter.com/Jso225zKX8
— Kermit In Progress ? (@Kermit_Progress) May 20, 2019
“And not only was I left behind, but many others were left behind also,” Johnson said. “There was a feeling of betrayal because I had so much hope that I was going to come out.”
In fact, a petition to Obama with over 200,000 signatures advocating for Johnson’s release failed to secure her freedom when he was in office, despite his spree of prison commutations – many to drug convicts – during his second term.
Trump signed the First Step Act into law last December, ushering in reforms to improve rehabilitation programs for former inmates as well as allow judges more flexibility in how they sentence those accused of nonviolent crimes. Naturally many on the left were unwilling to give him any credit for the most significant criminal justice reform legislation to be undertaken in years.
Just last month, Trump was able to give Johnson a hug during the “Prison Reform Summit and FIRST STEP Act Celebration” at the White House.
(Video: YouTube/Daily Mail)
During her talk with Johnson on Sunday, Earhardt asked what she would like to say to the president.
“I hope that you’re proud of the things that I’ve been able to accomplish, and I hope that to you will continue to be proud of the things that I will do for this nation, for other people to change the trajectory of how we look at prisoners, how we look at people,” Johnson said.
“Thank you for seeing me as another human being and giving me a second chance in life,” she added.
Twitter users trashed left’s false narrative about Trump being a racist even as he ushered in prison reform and secured the release for Johnson who was left in prison by his predecessor.
I’d like to see Biden explain how President Trump helped/helping people like Alice Johnson. He and Obama did NOTHING!
— Richard A. Ekstedt – author (@RichardSorell) May 20, 2019
Wow after watching the Alice Johnson story who the worst president in American history turned down twice to let her free, I hv a new found respect for @KimKardashian. @realDonaldTrump made an Obama wrong into a Trump right!
— Rene Jack (@REscobio) May 20, 2019
I am disturbed to think that President Obama set Chelsea Manning free & Refused Alice Johnson’s clemency on the same day.
— Brenda R (@BRENDA5000) May 20, 2019
The story of Alice Johnson, a beautiful story of hope! Why didn’t the Dems’ commute her sentence? Why did it take a Republican with a big heart to do it? The truth is, to keep people who are not a threat to society in prison, costs money, takes valuable space for violent people.
— Stephen Boyce (@Stephenboyce) May 20, 2019
How’s this for hypocrisy – Alice Johnson was incarcerated for Life. Obama ignored a petition w over 200,000 signatures requesting he commute her sentence. President Trump granted her a full pardon! Yet the MSM says HE’s the racist?!
— Gregory Robert Mesa (@mesa0001) May 20, 2019
Democrat candidates have been accusing #FoxNews of promoting hateful & divisive rhetoric.
Right now on MSNBC they are trashing the President and his supporters. Fox News has on Alice Johnson, black woman released by Trump’s Prison Reform Act, engaged in an uplifting conversation.— Linda S (@LinSapCT) May 20, 2019
Where was The Great Obama when Alice Johnson needed pardon. For a stupid non violent crime. And where are these idiots to keep calling President Trump a racist Obama divided this country not Trump
— Preston James (@JamesMytwosense) May 20, 2019
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