SIGN UP FOR OUR
Click image to enlarge
Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff.
Whens all eyes focused on Category 4 Hurricane Harvey slamming the Texas Gulf Coast late Friday, wham, President Donald Trump issues his first full presidential pardon. It went to former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to absolve him of his misdemeanor contempt-of-court conviction last month for defying a court order to stop detentions of individuals solely for being undocumented immigrants.
Arpaio’s pardon is not unprecedented; however it is rare for a new president to issue an order for executive clemency this early into their first term. The 85-year-old, media-savvy Arpaio said in a brief TV news interview that he would accept President Trump’s pardon and that he would be holding a press conference early this week to further discuss the matter. He seemed to infer that the ongoing Texas hurricane disaster should be more important for media coverage than his pardon.
In Arpaio’s first-lengthy interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News he said this about President Trump’s pardon:
“It’s great. I love that president. He supports law enforcement. I am very humble. If you recall two years ago, I supported him and I said publicly recently – pardon or no pardon – I will be with him till the end. And I’m going to do a news conference … and get to the bottom of this, show the abuse of the judicial system and politics. I’m not going down without trying to defend myself to all those people that don’t like what I’ve done.”
Sentencing for Arpaio’s conviction was expected next month. He was facing six months in a federal jail, news reports said.
The most famous presidential pardon came in 1974 when President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon for any-and-all Watergate-related crimes. Nixon is the only U.S. president who resigned from the presidency.
Sheriff Joe — as he is affectionately called — lost a reelection last year to a little-known opponent. The voters of Maricopa County retired their beloved sheriff who repeatedly gained national attention for his tough stance on criminals especially illegal immigrants.
The out-of-the-blue timing of the announcement just before a large natural disaster strike, and the pardon itself, are being questioned by the president’s many critics and mainstream media, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and numerous liberal Latino groups in the Southwest U.S.
“A pardon of Sheriff Arpaio would be excusing racist and illegal policing policies,” said Vanita Gupta, before the announcement. She is president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, formerly with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Obama administration, according to Real Clear Politics. “If President Trump uses his power to pardon a discredited law enforcement official who persistently engaged in illegal racial profiling of the Latino community, it will not be a dog whistle to the so-called ‘alt-right’ and white supremacists, but a bull horn.”
President Trump spoke about a pardon for Arpaio during last week’s campaign-style rally held in Phoenix, where Arpaio was sheriff of Maricopa County for 25 years. Arpaio is a strong Trump supporter. He campaigned for Trump all though the president’s 2016 campaign frequently speaking at campaign rallies and at the Republican National Convention in Ohio where Trump won the Republican nomination for president.
This ex-sheriff undoubtedly will play a future role in advising President Trump – however informal — with issues involving immigration, law enforcement and border control. Don’t be surprised to see Arpaio show up at the White House one of these days or speak at a future Trump rally.
There is no shortage of reactions to this pardon, here’s another example.
“This will be highly controversial and highly divisive, but so is almost everything else Trump does these days,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant, a former aide to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in a Real Clear Politics story. “Yes, it will further hurt Republicans’ standing with certain voters, but at this point our problems are much bigger. … It seems unlikely this will be the tipping point.”
Revered by local, state and federal law enforcement officers around the country, Arpaio is despised by Democrats from coast-to-coast. He has spoken out repeatedly against sanctuary cities.
In a familiar Trump-type Tweet, Arpaio commented on his pardon.
“Thank you @realdonaldtrump for seeing my conviction for what it is: A political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama Justice Department.”
Is it any wonder that Arpaio and President Trump get along so well?
About the Author
Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.
Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.
