Trump Refers To Execution Drugs in Botched Attempt as ‘Medication’

President Donald Trump referred to the drugs used in the botched execution of Christa Pike as “medication” and said putting people to death “shouldn’t be very difficult.”

On Wednesday evening, Tennessee attempted to execute the 50-year-old Pike, who was found guilty and sentenced to death for the grisly murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995 when Pike was 18. According to a reporter who witnessed the attempted lethal injection, Pike received a dose of pentobarbital, which was supposed to kill her. When it did not, she was administered a second dose, but remained alive.

Pike was hospitalized after the failed execution attempt.

On Thursday, Trump took questions from reporters, one of whom asked about the execution attempt.

“After the botched execution last night in Tennessee, are you gonna be looking for any change in capital punishment?” he asked.

“Well, that was an interesting situation,” the president replied. “But you’re gonna have to speak to Tennessee about it, whether or not they’re gonna go forward. You know what that was about? That was an execution where the medication didn’t exactly work.”

Trump then turned to Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), who was the White House physician during Trump’s first term.

“He would answer it better than anybody,” Trump said. “How does that happen?”

“I don’t know how that happens,” Jackson replied. “It should be easy to do.”

“It shouldn’t be very difficult,” Trump echoed.

Pike’s attorneys – Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason of the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender, and Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen from Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee – issued a statement after the attempted execution.

“Tonight the State of Tennessee once again failed to carry out a lawful execution,” the statement read. “We take no pleasure in being right, but the concerns raised by Ms. Pike proved to be true: difficult vein access, blown veins, degraded pentobarbital, no emergency medical care available when things inevitably go wrong, all under a protocol that remains veiled in secrecy.”

Watch above via Real America’s Voice.

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