His vote was in support of a prior iteration of this law during his congressional tenure.
"[DeSantis] believes that he can harness the country's prevailing rhetoric and fear of increasing lawlessness, turning it against his primary rival," says Tolman.
Tolman also observes that DeSantis, among others, is faulting a law that merely introduces slight alterations to the federal system—a system that is one of the smallest, holding less than 160,000 inmates, compared to the roughly 1.7 million individuals incarcerated across the entire U.S. prison system, which encompasses state, local, federal, and tribal prisons.
Trump's supporters are striking back, but not to defend the legislative success; instead, they aim to spotlight DeSantis' inconsistency on the matter.
“Ron DeSantis campaigned on Donald Trump’s America First Agenda … Now he’s criticizing President Trump on the very same matters, demonstrating that he’s just another vacillating politician who will utter whatever it takes to triumph,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC backed by Trump, expressed in a statement.
DeSantis endorsed a preliminary form of the legislation that cleared the GOP-controlled House in 2018 when he was a representative.
The aforementioned bill backed rehabilitation initiatives that inmates could participate in, but it did not propose any alterations to shorten prison sentences. Trump enacted a more comprehensive version into law, implementing policies that reduced certain federal mandatory sentences and increased the amount of 'good time' credits an inmate could accumulate through positive conduct.
After acquiring the GOP gubernatorial nomination, DeSantis vacated his House seat in September 2018. Trump didn’t sanction the ultimate version, containing bipartisan enhancements, until December of that same year.
In his State of the Union address two months afterward, Trump claimed it was evidence of “remarkable progress for our nation” when Democrats and Republicans collaborate, adding that it benefitted Black Americans, who are disproportionately affected by the criminal justice system.
“This law rectified sentencing policies that have unjustly and disproportionately impacted the African-American population,” Trump proclaimed during his 2019 national address. “The First Step Act provides non-violent offenders the opportunity to re-integrate into society as productive, law-abiding citizens.”