The GOP is ignoring Trump’s outrageous and dangerous behavior.

Danee Kaplan
Aug 28, 2017 · 4 min read

I am sure everyone has heard that Trump fired Sebastian Gorka and Pardoned Joe Arpaio Friday in a news dump aka he released it all Friday evening after 8 pm, hoping nobody would notice. They also used the Hurricane to distract.

There are a variety of theories about the pardon- he is giving his base a positive news item on the night he got rid of Gorka, a man with deep ties to alt right. Or maybe he was sending a message to the Paul Manaforts that he would pardon anyone tied up in the Mueller investigation. Or he wanted to pay back an strong political supporter. What it is at the very minimum is another opportunity to highlight Trump’s willingness to give racists a pass. What is clear to me and many others is that Trump’s pardoning of Arpaio shows he-Trump- is a racist. Which is terrifying in and of itself. But we have another huge problem on our hands because it also shows that our president has NO RESPECT FOR OUR COURTS.

Joe Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court… after he was told to stop racially profiling people of color but he continued to do so for 17 months. He ordered his deputies to stop anyone they suspected COULD be illegally here and made them show papers. ANYONE they wanted to pull over. It was birtherism on an entirely ridiculous scale…and it is illegal. He was told to stop and he refused to stop. By pardoning him, Trump made himself judge and jury. This is not how pardoning has ever been done before. It is true that technically Trump, as the president, had the power to pardon Joe Arpaio on Friday. According to Article II Section 2 of Constitution, the president “shall have the Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” (Politico) But he threw all precedent out the window. Normal process is that the person serves 5 years of their crime and then the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney reviews the case and makes recommendations . Normally the person has to exhaust all alternatives, in fact “no petition can be filed as long as “other forms of judicial or administrative relief are available” But Arpaio didn’t file- Trump came up with it all himself. Based on the Justice Department guidelines the petitioner has to wait 5 years after conviction to petition for a pardon; the person has to accept responsibility. The FBI investigates for financial and emotional stability, responsibility toward family, reputation, community service involvement, charitable or meritorious activities and military record (Politico). Arpaio didn’t even start serving his sentence, hasn’t admitted his guilt-in fact Trump said Sherrif Joe was just “doing his job” and the JD was NOT involved.

We have a big problem right now as Trump gets deeper and deeper with the alt right/white supremacists/Nazis and the GOP IGNORES HIS ACTION. I am frankly both surprised and not surprised. I knew the GOP was deeply racist as a party- their beliefs on entitlement programs tend to come with anecdotal stories involving lazy women and black people. Their voter suppression bills of all shapes and types are always evolving and in fact they are taking some of them to the Supreme Court after losing 4 times in Texas. But I did think they would stand up to Trump’s further spinning out of control once it got to this level.

This isn’t going to end well for them. For one thing, the man is not a leader and he won’t lead us to a good place. I can’t imagine why they think they will get any major legislation done at this point when the Dems are not going to help them and the midterms are close and Trump is incapable of helping them. This won’t end well for them. I guess if they really do believe that George Soros is paying people to show up at rallies if they really don’t understand that the resistance is literally mostly middle age Americas who are disgusted by the GOP and Trump, then I guess I can understand their misjudgment.

So we are back where we were last week but with more power and more venom. Fred MUST stand up and condemn Trump in no uncertain terms by name.

Questions for your Republican legislatures today:

Why haven’t you condemned Trump by name?

When will you condemn him by name? What behavior is too far?

Your Black, Hispanic and Jewish are scared, terrified, sad, angry. Do you have no concern or care for Jews, Hispanic or Black constituents?

What are you doing to lead our country back together?

What is your position on Trump’s pardoning of Arpaio and what it says about his respect for the court?

Do you understand that you are coequal branch of government? You have the power to do something to stop Trump’s march toward tyranny. What are you doing?

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