Then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks in support of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally on August 31, 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona. | Ralph Freso/Getty Images Trump: I dropped Arpaio pardon during Harvey because of ratings

President Donald Trump hit former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton for their pardons and commutations, while defending his own controversial pardon of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — including the decision to drop the news as Hurricane Harvey was bearing down on Texas.

“A lot of people think it was the right thing to do,” the president said Monday, during a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. “Actually, in the middle of a hurricane, even though it was a Friday evening, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they were normally."


The president pardoned Arpaio Friday evening, after teasing the move earlier in the week at his Phoenix rally. The act was seen by some as dismissive toward immigrants, given Arpaio's aggressive tactics in cracking down on border crossings and his detention practices. But while listing Arpaio’s achievements — “somebody that's won many, many elections in the state of Arizona” — Trump turned to former presidents and their own pardons over the years.

“President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, who was charged with crimes going back decades, including illegally buying oil from Iran while it held 53 American hostages,” he said. “[He] wasn't allowed to do that. Selling to the enemies of the United States. He was pardoned after his wife donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clintons.”

Armed with prepared notes, Trump went on to hit Clinton for his pardoning of Susan Rosenberg, a member of the militant Weather Underground, and circled back to earlier rhetoric on Obama's commuting of Chelsea Manning's sentence.

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"You've heard the word leaker? President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning, who leaked countless sensitive and classified documents to WikiLeaks, perhaps in others, but horrible, horrible thing that he did, commuted the sentence and perhaps pardoned," Trump said.

Trump then highlighted Obama's commuting of the sentence for Oscar Lopez Rivera, "who was charged as part of a violent Independence group from Puerto Rico responsible for 28 Chicago-area bombings and many deaths in the 1970s and 1980s," the president said.

By comparison, Trump said, pardoning Arpaio was the right thing to do.

"Sheriff Joe is a patriot. Sheriff Joe loves our country. Sheriff Joe protected our borders. And Sheriff Joe was very unfairly treated by the Obama administration, especially right before an election, an election that he would have won," Trump said. "So I stand by my pardon of Sheriff Joe, and I think the people of Arizona who really know him best would agree with me."