Amid backlash over his controversial pardons, former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin tweeted a photo of a colorful sunset Thursday evening.
Winter sunset…
Phone camera doesn’t do it justice…Truly spectacular!#WeAreKY pic.twitter.com/qN9tHqVABQ
— Matt Bevin (@MattBevin) December 12, 2019
But Twitter users, including well-known ESPN college basketball commentator Dick Vitale, weren’t having it, and they would not let the polarizing political figure forget about those pardons.
“Bevin should be ashamed of himiself / how can he go sleep & feel good about himself?” Vitale tweeted early Friday. “This is a disgrace!”
Vitale’s tweet was responding to a tweet from ESPN Radio college basketball analyst Bob Valvano that also took a shot at Bevin.
I have really tried not to post things that (intentionally) could be viewed as somehow politically charged.
But if this is interpreted that way,so be it.
Matt Bevin just pardoned a man who raped a 9 year old, after he served just one year. One.Got kids? How ya feel bout that?
— Bob Valvano (@espnVshow) December 12, 2019
The Courier Journal first reported Wednesday that Bevin issued hundreds of pardons during one of his last days in office. Those pardoned included a man who raped a 9-year-old in Kenton County and other convicted killers.
Family members of the victims of those Bevin pardoned have expressed displeasure with the former governor, with one saying that “Matt Bevin can rot in hell.”
Twitter users voiced similar anger Thursday evening.
“I guess you can snap pics when you don’t have the time to look families (or voters) in the face and tell them you pardoned murderers and rapists,” wrote Twitter user, @JoshTrosperKY.
Matt Jones, the Kentucky Sports Radio host who, until recently, was mulling a 2020 bid to challenge Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said it was “(s)hameful” that Bevin pardoned a convicted killer whose family members held a fundraiser in 2018 for the governor’s campaign.
Amazing pictures
Two men in Knox County commit the same murder
One’s family lives in the house on the left and donated $21,000 to Matt Bevin
The other’s family lives in the one on the right
Bevin pardons the one on the left and leaves one on the right In jail
Shameful https://t.co/B50Q2sJs6u
— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) December 13, 2019
And Twitter user @Lisa4UK attacked Bevin for being “paid off” by one of the families of someone he pardoned. The brother and sister-in-law of offender Patrick Brian Baker, who was pardoned by Bevin for a homicide and other crimes in a 2014 Knox County home invasion, raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin’s 2015 gubernatorial campaign.
You are not KY. Never were. Anyone that could pardon a convicted child rapist and convicted murderers, one of which paid you off…and still sleep at night, is no Kentuckian (or American for that matter) Please go back to where you came from
— Lisa (@Lisa4UK) December 13, 2019
Senate Democratic Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, told The Courier Journal on Thursday that he will call for Attorney General-elect Daniel Cameron to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate the pardon of Baker to assure that politics is removed from the equation.
Bevin’s former campaign manager and chief of staff have not replied to requests for comment about the pardon and fundraiser. A reporter rang the doorbell several times at Bevin’s Anchorage home Thursday morning, but no one answered the door.
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Written by Ben Tobin and David Harten. Cross-posted from the
Courier-Journal via the Kentucky Press News Service.