Fox & Friends Weekend hosts were upset that President Joe Biden changed the sentence of a controversial judge who was involved in the well-known “kids for cash” scandal.
Former judge Michael T. Conahan from Luzerne County, Pa. was one of the 1,500 people whose sentences Biden commuted this week. In addition, the president released 39 people from prison who had not been violent.
Conahan, on the other hand, has gotten the most attention because he was at the center of the “kids for cash” scheme. In this scheme, private prisons paid him money to jail young people.
In a speech this week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) said that President Biden made the wrong decision about Michael Conahan. He said that Biden was “absolutely wrong” in this case. The White House says that Conahan met certain requirements for his sentence to be commuted because he was locked up at home during the COVID pandemic. After being found guilty in 2011, Conahan was given a prison sentence of more than 17 years, but he is now free.
On Saturday morning, Pittsburgh columnist Salena Zito went on Fox News and talked with Will Cain about Michael Conahan’s crime. She called it a “profound scandal” in Pennsylvania.
Zito brought up some of the terrible results of Conahan’s actions, such as the tragic suicide of a young man who Conahan sent to a juvenile detention center as part of his plan.
“This had a devastating impact on families,” Zito said.
“Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Sandy Fonzo, the mother of the young man who took his own life, said in a statement in response to Biden’s action.
“So real consequences for what this individual did, to try and get money off of the lives of children,” Fox co-host Carley Shimkus said on Saturday.
“It’s beyond disgusting,” co-host Kevin Corke added. “And when she said vulgar, that really resonates with a lot of Pennsylvanians, but even if you’re not from the keystone state and you hear about this story — and there have been some stories done on this particular case on some of the major networks, you see these crime stories and they say, here’s who was so callous as to take advantage of the most vulnerable among us.”
He added: “We’re talking about children here. And to do it for money is beyond the pale.”
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