President Donald Trump pardoned Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday – and liberals responded with the outrage and vitriol you’d expect. Since Arpaio wasn’t a cocaine dealer, a leaker of military secrets, or a domestic terrorist, there was bound to be outrage from the Left.
At a joint press conference alongside Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö, Trump faced his first public question from the press regarding the pardon. Fox News’ John Roberts asked, “In the middle of Hurricane Harvey hitting on Friday night you chose to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpario. I wonder if you could tell us what was behind your thinking for issuing a pardon for the Sheriff and as well what do you say to your critics, even some in your own party, who say it was the wrong thing to do?”
Trump responded in turn:
“A lot of people think it was the right thing to do, John. And actually, in the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a Friday evening, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally. You know the hurricane was just starting. And I put it out that I had pardoned…as we call, as we say…Sherriff Joe.”
“He’s done a great job for the people of Arizona. He is very strong on borders, very strong on illegal immigration. He is loved in Arizona. I thought he was treated unbelievably unfairly when they came down with their big decision to go get him right before the election voting started, as you know. And he lost in a fairly close election. He would’ve won the election, but they just hammered him just before the election. I thought that was a very, very unfair thing to do,” he continued.
Then, Trump went off on Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s pardons.
To quote the relevant section in full:
President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, who was charged with crimes going back decades, including illegally buying oil from Iran while it held 53 American hostages — wasn’t allowed to do that — selling to the enemies of the United States. He was pardoned after his wife donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clintons.
Then you have dangerous criminals. President Clinton pardoned Susan Rosenberg, a member of the Weather Underground, charged as part of a bank robbery that led to a guard and two police officers being killed.
Drug dealers. President Clinton commuted the sentence of Carlos Vignali, a central player in a cocaine ring that stretched from California to Minnesota.
Criminal leaker. You’ve heard the word “leaker”? President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked countless sensitive and classified documents to WikiLeaks, perhaps and others, but horrible, horrible thing that he did — commuted the sentence and perhaps pardoned.
President Obama commuted the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was charged as part of a violent independence group from Puerto Rico responsible for 28 Chicago-area bombings and many deaths in the 1970s and 1980s.
For all the bad that can be said about Sheriff Arpaio – his crimes don’t come close to any of those.
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