Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are lambasting Virginia’s recent restoration of voting rights for 200,000 convicted felons who’ve paid their debt to society. And that means that Charles and David Koch have an opportunity to prove they’re more than talk on criminal justice reform.
Of course, we know the Kochs’ push for criminal justice reform is just a PR sham and an opportunistic effort to protect themselves and their business interests. Remember: Koch Industries has itself been convicted of multiple felonies over the years.
Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are not so enthusiastic about re-enfranchising voters. Here’s Ted Cruz’s reaction to Virginia’s restoration of voting rights, via Fox News: “I don’t know any reasonable person who looks at our democracy and says, ‘The thing we need is more murderers voting, more rapists voting, more violent criminals voting — I don’t think that makes a lot of sense.”
And here’s Trump — who doesn’t seem to grasp the concept that the re-enfranchisement doesn’t mean that convicted felons currently serving their sentences will be released from prison to vote: “I think I’m going to do great in Virginia — I employ a lot of people in Virginia. But when you do that you allow 200,000 of — serious, these are serious criminals. These are people that committed serious crimes. You allow them to vote, they’re going to vote Democrat and that throws off the balance.”