By Allan Lengel
A super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis for president is trying to make ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick an issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.
The PAC, Never Back Down, has released a 53-second video titled “Welcome to Detroit,” which attacks ex-President Donald Trump for commuting Kilpatrick’s 28-year sentence for public corruption in 2021.
The video also demonizes Kilpatrick who went to prison in 2013 and ended up serving nearly eight years. With good behavior, he would have normally served about 24 of the 28-year sentence.
The ad asks: “Why do elites get to play by different rules?”
It goes on to say: “In 2013 Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison. He was a stone-cold crook who assaulted police and stole millions of dollars from the people of Michigan, enriching himself through racketeering, bribery, extortion and fraud. Not even President Obama would give him clemency.”
The Hill reports:
Kilpatrick was one of over 100 people who Trump granted clemency shortly before he left office. Others included his former chief strategy Steve Bannon, rapper Lil Wayne, and GOP fundraiser Elliot Broidy.
Kilpatrick served as the city’s 72nd mayor from 2002 to 2008.
Since leaving prison, Kilpatrick has remarried, had a child and started a virtual ministry from Georgia, “Movemental Ministries.”