According to the Journal's report, Biden's first called Defense Secretary Lloyd Austinabout the drones on December 12.

Activists have called for Biden to commute the sentence of many or all federal death row inmates for some time. More than 130 civil and human rights groups penned a letter to the president in early December calling on him to commute the sentences of "all individuals on federal death row."

The president commuted the death sentences of almost all of the men on federal death row, but left out three of the most well-known, including Roof.