Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) doubled down Tuesday on blaming progressive politics for the escape of 10 New Orleans jail inmates. Half of the escapees remained at large as of Wednesday morning after a fifth was captured Tuesday evening.
“The system as a whole is broken in that city, and we intend to fix it,” Landry told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo.
Landry, a staunch conservative and ally of President Trump, has repeatedly pointed to billionaire Democratic donor George Soros’s influence in Democrat-led New Orleans for creating the circumstances that that allowed 10 inmates to break out of the jail at about 1 a.m. on Friday.
“George Soros came over the last decade or so and spent a ton of money in the city of New Orleans, electing these progressive people,” Landry told Cuomo. “It’s like he came (as) Santa Claus, and inside his sack, he put out a (district attorney), a sheriff, and I think about six judges, and we have been having problems in the city ever since now.”
Landry, who took office last year, has routinely pointed to Hungarian-born Democratic megadonor Soros, 94, as having influence over issues in his state.
Soros-linked groups contributed $220,000 to Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams’s 2020 election, according to campaign finance records.
Landry said the slow criminal justice system in New Orleans left dangerous criminals in a parish-run prison with lower security.
“The problem that I have is the fact that that system and jail has people that have been sitting in those jail cells waiting for sentences,” he told Cuomo. “If they were sentenced, then they become my problem. I get to take them and put them in a state facility.”
William defended his job performances, during a news conference Monday.
“If we don’t have a complete police report, we can’t go forward. If we do go forward, we get tossed out of court by the judge,” he told reporters.
Landry previously has blamed Soros’s influence for voters’ rejection of a constitutional amendment the governor backed in March that sought to overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system.
Authorities say the group of New Orleans escapees on Friday busted into a cell with a broken slider door and escaped through a hole behind a toilet fixture. They were discovered missing during a routine headcount check hours later.
Maintenance worker Sterling Williams, 33, has been charged with assisting the jailbreak after he allegedly admitted to law enforcement that he turned off the plumbing connected to the stall at the prisoners’ request.
Landry similarly blamed progressives for the jailbreak during a news conference on Sunday.
“The irony of the progressive promises that have been made to this city is clear. New Orleans handed the jail keys to those who vowed to keep criminals out of jail, and sadly, today we see that it worked,” he said at a news conference Sunday. “I hope everyone understands that the video of those prisoners escaping epitomizes a progressive criminal justice system.”
New Orleans is in the middle of a municipal election cycle, including for the offices of Orleans Parish sheriff, New Orleans mayor and all seven city council positions. The city’s voters will cast primary ballots Oct. 11, and runoffs will take place Nov. 15 for any races where no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, who announced Tuesday that she is suspending her reelection campaign, blasted the political rhetoric on Sunday while escapees remain at large.
“Political people are making this a political issue,” she told reporters.
