The timing of President Trump’s pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio had nothing to do with a desire to dodge media coverage, Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert said Sunday.
Trump pardoned the controversial law enforcement figure, who was convicted in July of violating a court order in a racial profiling case, hours before Hurricane Harvey touched down on the Gulf Coast last Friday.
While the pardon itself drew criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, several Democrats also accused the president of taking advantage of news coverage of the hurricane to reduce the attention the Arpaio announcement would have otherwise drawn.
“As millions of people in TX and LA are prepping for the hurricane, the President is using the cover of the storm to pardon a man who violated a court’s order to stop discriminating against Latinos and ban courageous transgender men and women from serving our nation’s Armed Forces,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a series of tweets.
“The only reason to do these right now is to use the cover of Hurricane Harvey to avoid scrutiny,” Schumer added.
Bossert rejected such accusations during an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“He’s clearly wrong,” the White House aide said of Schumer.
Bossert continued, “The president weighed the totality of the circumstances and the sheriff’s history of service, both in the military and to the law enforcement community, and decided that the 80-something-year-old man with his history and record of service deserved clemency at this point.”
“That was a very unique and personal decision the president took, and he made that decision on Friday night. I don’t think that took up more than a minute of his time on Friday night,” he said.
