That President Trump pardoned former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio surprised no one who’d been paying attention. On Tuesday, he’d all but said that he was going to do so, soaking up the applause from a friendly audience at a rally in Phoenix when he broached the subject.
It being expected, though, didn’t do much to lessen the surprise at its happening. In part that was because of the timing: Dropping the news right as the most serious hurricane in half a century was making landfall in Texas late on a Friday evening. But even more because of what Arpaio was being pardoned for. Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court after being told to stop racially profiling Hispanics in his county but continuing to do so anyway — in part to bolster his reelection bid. This was a law enforcement official who was ignoring a federal court order and, as a result, was convicted of a misdemeanor.
And Trump pardoned him.
The rationale Trump offered was not complicated. It came down, essentially, to the idea that Arpaio had an honorable career of service — to his being the kind of guy that Trump respects…
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