ARPAIO PARDONED

[GeorgiaModerate]

Maybe he thinks nobody will notice with the hurricane about to make landfall.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Aropioa was a victim of a witch hunt!

Period

Come on.  He deliberately and repeatedly violated a federal court order.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Interesting thought:

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[GeorgiaModerate]

He needs to be removed.

For what? Using his constitutional authority? You need to impeach and remove somebody for a reason besides disagreeing with somebody politically.

This is true.  The President has an absolute right to pardon anyone in a Fedreal case (except possibly himself, which is an unresolved legal question.)

However, the people also have a right: to remember the pardon, and to judge him for it.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I think we should amend the Constitution to give Congress the power to overrule a pardon, even if it's like a 90% threshold or something (and also to limit how many people he can pardon, even if it's in the thousands). There has to be a check on this power. In theory he could pardon everybody in the federal criminal justice system.

The pardon power was intended by the Founders as one of the checks and balances.  It provides the executive with a check on the courts, for a situation like an out of control court jailing people for political reasons.

The check on the president abusing the power is for Congress to impeach him.

[GeorgiaModerate]

He needs to be removed.

For what? Using his constitutional authority? You need to impeach and remove somebody for a reason besides disagreeing with somebody politically.

For using his constitutional authority unwisely. Pardoning racist thug Arpaio is one more bit of proof (not that more was needed) that Trump is unfit to hold the office. That alone is sufficient justification to impeach him. That he has not been impeached should to destroy the Republican Party in coming years.

But that's not illegal, it's still legal to pardon Arpaio whether or not you like the man. You can't be impeached for pardoning somebody that you don't like. It's not a crime.

Well, the president can be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors".  This is whatever Congress says it is; it doesn't actually have to be a statuary violation.  One of the articles of impeachment against Nixon was for "abuse of power" -- not a legal violation, but certainly a good reason to remove him.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Dear Republicans, you are now OFFICIALLY the party of racism and bigotry.  Not only has your President publicly defended the KKK & Neo-Nazi's, but now he is pardoning old racists found guilty of racial profiling and contempt of court.  That is your party.

You have 4 choices now.

1) Accept that you support the party of racism.
2) Leave the Republican party to become a Democrat, Libertarian, or start another party.
3) Push for the impeachment and removal of DJT.

What's the 4th choice?

[GeorgiaModerate]

The Arizona Republic, the state's largest newspaper, rips the pardon in an editorial: http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2017/08/25/donald-trump-resurrects-joe-arpaio-irrelevance/604067001/

And before anyone starts yelling about the biased media: the Republic's editorial board has a long-standing Republican lean.  (They did endorse Clinton in 2016, but before that they had not endorsed a Democrat since 1890.)

[GeorgiaModerate]

Aropioa was a victim of a witch hunt!

Period

Yes. He was dancing around a cauldron on a full moon, singing songs in praise of Satan and thinking about a good place to buy eye of newt.

For those crying witch hunt: the judge who found Arpaio guilty of civil contempt and who referred him for criminal charges was District Judge G. Murray Snow, who was nominated to that position by President George W. Bush.

[GeorgiaModerate]

At this point, one has to wonder whether there was an ulterior motive to this. Trump doesn't give favors to people unless he can get something out of it. Arpaio has nothing left to give Trump, and stood to lose virtually nothing from his conviction. And obviously, there was no popularity to gain from this.

Perhaps he's sending a signal to Manafort, Flynn, etc. that he'll have their back if they're good boys and take the fall for him?

I think this is a very sound theory.  However, a pardon of Manafort, Flynn, etc. wouldn't be an unmixed blessing for Trump.  If someone like Flynn is pardoned, he can still be subpoenaed to testify about those activities, and he can no longer take the Fifth because of the pardon.  But the pardon wouldn't cover criminal acts after the pardon was issued, such as ignoring a subpoena.  Of course Trump could continue to issue repeated pardons for someone, but at some point that would have to be too much for even the Republicans in Congress.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Is anyone keeping track of which politicians have public supported or denounced the pardon?