A well-known conservative California sheriff joked that he was “switching teams” ahead of the 2024 election and urged people to support a “convicted felon.”
“I think it's time to put a criminal in the White House,” Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a video posted to social media Saturday.
Bianco's comments come after former President Trump was convicted of 34 crimes in New York last week, making the former president the first president to be convicted of a crime.
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Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on May 15, 2024 in Washington, DC (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Bianco, who has openly teased the possibility of running for governor of California, said in the video that over his three decades in law enforcement he has done everything he can to “keep our community safe by arresting criminals and put in jail,” but complained that leaders and California have apparently become pro-crime in recent years.
“Over the past five years, I have been very critical of our governor for cutting funding for corrections, for releasing prisoners early and for closing our prisons,” Bianco said. “I have been critical of our state legislature for passing laws that make it harder to put people in jail. I have been critical of their changing laws that release prisoners early. And I've been critical of our attorney general because he apparently doesn't care about crime.”
The sheriff went public to deplore the “love affair” state leaders “have with criminals,” which he said is based on the “belief that criminals are not responsible for their own actions.”
“They are a victim of society,” Bianco said. “It's society's fault. It's business's fault. It's the police's fault. It could be my fault too.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco takes a knee with protesters after thousands of them marched to the Robert Presley Detention Center during a protest over the death of George Floyd during the coronavirus pandemic on June 1, 2020. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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Bianco noted that state leaders blame the justice system, laws and law enforcement for being “systematically racist,” which leads to criminals ending up in prison due to “bias.”
But now “they're letting them out,” the sheriff continued, saying they're giving criminals “housing, they're giving them money, they're giving them drugs and alcohol now.”
Bianco added that he was “tired” of the problem before ironically admitting that he “might have been wrong.”
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, center, listens to Sheriff Chad Bianco during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol to recognize law enforcement as part of Police Week on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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“I think I'm going to change teams,” Bianco said.
“I think they're on to something, but I don't think they're doing enough,” the sheriff joked, before revealing that he thought it would be a good idea to put a criminal in the White House.
“Trump 2024, baby, let's save this country and make America great again,” Bianco concluded.
