When Will It Be Enough to Remove This Asshole?

President Trump defended his controversial pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio on Monday, saying his decision to announce it during Hurricane Harvey likely earned it “far higher” ratings.

[...]

Addressing the specific timing of his pardon — which seemed to embody a classic “news dump,” coming as the nation focused on the impending storm — the president said he actually imagined the controversial pardon would have attracted even more media attention, because of the Harvey coverage.

“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,” he said.

  WaPo

The ratings! We have an unprecedented disaster in Texas and he's looking at the ratings for his pardon of another asshole. Unfit for the presidency. Unfit for human interaction.

At the news conference, when asked about Arpaio, he began reading from a sheet of paper, rattling off other controversial pardons under former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

[...]

“So I stand by my pardon of Sheriff Joe and I think the people of Arizona who really know him best would agree with me,” he said.

It's not a friggin' personality contest, asshole. The man defied a court order.

"What do you say to your critics, some even in your own party, who say it was the wrong thing to do?" Roberts asked.

"Well a lot of people said it was the right thing to do, John," Trump said. "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 we pardoned, as we say, Sheriff Joe."

[...]

"He's done a great job for the people of Arizona," Trump continued. "He's 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 before the election. I thought that was a very, very unfair thing to do."

Trump added that when he mentioned Arpaio during his Arizona rally last week, "the place went absolutely crazy."

[...]

Arpaio became a notorious figure over the more than two decades he spent leading the sheriff's office. He is perhaps best known for keeping inmates in a "tent city" jail under inhumane conditions. He once called the sweltering open-air facility a "concentration camp." An outspoken Trump supporter, Arpaio was also one of the leading figures of the "birther" movement, which sought to delegitimize Obama by claiming he was not born in the US.

  Business Insider

Disgusting bag of garbage. The both of them.

Trump did not provide any legal rationale for why Arpaio deserved a pardon, but he did call the 85-year-old a "great law enforcement person" and "someone who's won many, many elections."

"Sheriff Joe is a patriot," Trump said. "Sheriff Joe loves our country. Sheriff Joe protected our borders."

See Spot run. See Spot sit. See Spot stay.

The Washington Post reported this weekend that Trump asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions months ago whether dropping the case against Arpaio was a possibility, to which Sessions said it would be inappropriate. He did say then, though, that a pardon could be granted, a move about which Trump was reportedly "gung-ho."

And add Sessions to that list of assholes, too. This is Trump once again trying to thwart justice, and Sessions giving him a helping hand.

Scum suckers.

UPDATE:

Trump seemed prepared to defend his pardon of Arpaio, a decision that drew pointed rebukes, including by some members of his own party. At the news conference, when asked about Arpaio, he began reading from a sheet of paper, rattling off other controversial pardons under former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.