President Trump’s homeland security advisor Tom Bossert tried to turn the tables somewhat on ABC’s George Stephanopoulos when asked about Trump’s pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
“I think the Arpaio pardon is pretty straightforward,” Bossert began.
“And George, as you know, the president you worked for [Bill Clinton], and just about every modern president, ends up with some controversial pardons. But I think the president’s been pretty clear on it. I certainly don’t think it’s fair to characterize him as not caring about the rule of law.”
Stephanopoulos was an aide to former President Bill Clinton, who created a firestorm of controversy when he pardoned Marc Rich, a wealthy businessman who had been indicted on numerous counts of fraud and racketeering.
Rich fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution.
Stephanopoulos pushed back saying the criticism of the Arpaio pardon also came from Republicans like Sen. John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Bossert said he wasn’t familiar with all of the particulars about the Arpaio case and the contempt of court levied on the sheriff, but said, “I know the president is clear about his defense of it and his decision. I’m pretty certain, too, George, this is not something that will threaten our constitutional order.”
News of Arpaio’s pardon broke late Friday night, at about the same time Hurricane Harvey was bearing down on the Gulf Coast of Texas. At the same time, more controversial news broke from the White House when it was learned that advisor Sebastian Gorka was leaving his role.
Bossert was also asked to address claims from this week that the administration was seeking congressional appropriation of funds for the proposed border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and whether there was an implied concession Mexico would not be paying for the wall, as Trump often promised would happen as he campaigned in 2016.
“What we’ll do here is we’ll go through the mechanism to get the original, initial money we need for that capital project from Congress through an appropriations process and we’ll responsibly construct a barrier on the border,” Bossert said.
“As we work with the Mexicans and other policies and trade policies and such, we’ll determine ways to make that right.”
