Ratings. Literally.
Asked why he pardoned “Sheriff” Joe Arpaio on Friday night during the middle of Hurricane Harvey, President Donald Trump told reporters he did so because he thought the ratings would be higher then.Â
Trump on Monday afternoon insisted “a lot of people” think pardoning Arpaio “was the right thing to do,” and added, “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.”
It was a stunning admission by the president that he does, as everyone assumed, make announcements based on when he believes they will receive maximum attention.
The President went on to call Arpaio a “patriot” who “loves our country” and “protected our borders.” He also claimed (falsely) that Arpaio was treated “unfairly by the Obama administration.”
On Friday, after Trump pardoned Arpaio, a local Arizona newspaper that has been covering the Maricopa County Sheriff posted a series of tweets detailing some of Arpaio’s many offenses. Among them, the Phoenix New Times said: “He ran a jail that he described as a ‘concentration camp,'” and “his fondness for racial profiling had cost the county more $44 million.”
Some responses to Trump’s ratings” remarks:
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