In Defending Joe Arpaio Pardon, Trump Falsely Claims Obama Pardoned Chelsea Manning

Arpaio was also known for campaigning for Trump previous year and investigating groundless claims that Obama was not born in the United States.

When the president pardoned former Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio during the middle of both Hurricane Harvey and a Trump media dump on Friday night, many speculated that it was a bone being thrown to his base to appease them after the likely forced resignation of deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka. He did it to maximize ratings.

You see, in Trump’s mind, during a hurricane everyone’s just chilling indoors, waiting for something exciting like the pardon of an 85-year-old racist to come on TV.

Arpaio shot to national fame by aggressively targeting immigrants living in the US illegally using tactics that Latino and immigrants’ rights advocates likened to racial profiling.

In pardoning Arpaio, who ignored a 2011 federal court order that he stop detaining illegal migrants, Trump insisted the former sheriff “kept Arizona safe”.

“Sheriff Joe loves our country”, he said.

“Sheriff Joe is a patriot”. The former sheriff, 85, was voted out of office a year ago.

President Trump defended his pardon by pointing to past Presidents’ controversial pardons and commutations, and Burnett asked Brinkley, “How does Arpaio compare?” It shows not only contempt for the judiciary’s sole means of enforcing the law, but suggests that Mr. Trump may be just as eager to pardon friends, family and allies caught up in the Russian Federation investigation. But during NBC Nightly News, the network didn’t really want to bother with all of that, so they chose to focus on hammering him for his controversial pardon of former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “And Sheriff Joe was very unfairly treated by the Obama administration, especially right before an election – an election that he would have won”. Another federal judge found Arpaio in contempt of court last month for defying that order. Pardons are typically granted after people serve out their sentences.

Trump’s pardon puts him in league with that defiance, continuing a long pattern. “I could run for mayor, I could run for legislator, I could run for Senate”, he said. All that shit that Arpaio did, that’s not why he needed a pardon. (Normally, a president waits until the appeals process plays out, and until he gets a recommendation from the pardon office of the Justice Department.) Presidential pardon power is almost unlimited.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has recently sparked backlash from Trump, also criticized Trump.