'Horribly misguided': Outgoing senator blasts Biden as he heads out the door

President Joe Biden's decision to commute the death penalty sentences of 37 inmates was met with fierce backlash on Thursday from outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin.

Brandon Basham and Chadrick Fulks escaped from a Kentucky jail in 2002 and launched into a nearly three-week crime spree, abducting and killing 19-year-old Samantha Burns, a Marshall University student, from a mall in West Virginia.

At the time, Burns disappeared after leaving her job at JC Penney. Her remains have never been found.

Basham and Fulks admitted they killed Burns during a carjacking as part of their plea deal. They also killed another woman, Alice Donovan.

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On Dec. 23, after reportedly meeting with Pope Francis, who prayed for the commutations of all federal death row inmates, Biden commuted the death sentences of Basham and Fulks to life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with dozens of others. Three inmates did not have their death sentences commuted: A Boston Marathon co-conspirator, the Tree of Life synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh a white supremacist who shot and killed nine people at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

On Thursday, the West Virginia senator, who left the Democratic Party and became an independent, blasted Biden's decision.

"After speaking to Samantha Burns’ parents, I believe it is my duty to speak on their behalf and say President Biden’s decision to commute the death sentences for the two men convicted in her brutal murder is horribly misguided and insulting," he said.

Manchin wrote that the Burns family pleaded with Biden and the Justice Department in letters "not to do this, but their concerns were unheard."

"I can’t imagine the grief that Kandi and John Burns are reliving and dealing with during the holiday season," said Manchin.

He added in a third post on X that as their senator and a father, "I want to express my deepest sympathy for their continued suffering. Please know that Samantha will forever be in our prayers."

Manchin's term as a senator from West Virginia will end in January.