Trump Pardons 'Ruthless, Horrible Human Beings' Says Homeland Security Expert

President Donald Trump granted pardons and commutations to 20 people on Tuesday. Among those pardoned were four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with a 2017 killing of Iraqi civilians -among those killed were two boys, 8 and 11.

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about the danger these pardons pose.

“First of all, Trump’s failure to embrace a peaceful transfer of power quickly, threatens, or at least would amplify the radicalization of some small parts of the population,” she said. '“[These pardons] do it too because it says, you can be ruthless, murderous, horrible human beings, who murders children.”

Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.