Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is introducing a new bill that could impose the death penalty on child sex offenders.
“If you rape someone or sexually abuse someone, you are essentially killing their soul. Those people never really recover completely. No. I was actually on a committee with some very prominent people. [female House Democrat] She talked about the fact that she was actually sexually abused as a child. So you can see that it’s affecting people and it’s really hurting,” Luna said.
Two of her three bills, introduced in the 119th Congress on Tuesday, would all impose the death penalty or at least life in prison for those charged with a wide range of crimes involving children.
Johnson slams Democrats as ‘dishonest’ for vowing to repeal Obamacare
Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna will introduce a new bill on Tuesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, via Getty Images)
A third bill would require a minimum sentence of 30 years to life in prison for convictions of adult rape and sexual abuse.
Luna told Fox News Digital that she broached the topic with President-elect Donald Trump over the weekend, indicating that Trump was enthusiastic about the idea.
“I got the impression that he was totally supportive of everything in this field,” Luna said.
The Florida congressman was among the members of the House Freedom Caucus who met with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
Republicans reveal details of private meeting with masked President Ramaswamy
Luna said President-elect Trump supports her bill. (Valerie Preche/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
He also discussed the possibility of President Trump signing an executive order imposing the death penalty for pedophile-related crimes, but said that would likely not happen.
“He would be happy to sign the contract.” [executive order]. But in reality, it first needs to be passed by Congress. So it has to get to his desk that way,” she said.
Luna first introduced the bill in the last Congress, when Democrats controlled half of Congress and the White House. However, they failed to gain significant support and ultimately were not voted on by the full House.
Mr. Luna first introduced the bill in the 118th Congress, but it failed to gain support. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, via Getty Images/File)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
She suggested that some may shy away from the issue, which had broad bipartisan support without the death penalty aspect, but argued that child predators “cannot be rehabilitated.”
“If you are going to continue moving forward in a moral society, [then] We need to permanently remove these predators from our streets,” Luna said.
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for FOX News Digital, where she leads coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines can be found on the Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow @liz_elkind on Twitter and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com.
Source link
