OrangeVerse XV: Pardon Me

President Trump defended his decision to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio in the middle of a time when, many believe, he should have been focused on Hurricane Harvey which had just made landfall in Texas.

Here's the question he was asked:

In the middle of Hurricane Harvey hitting on Friday night, you chose to pardon former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I wonder if you could tell us what was behind your thinking for issuing the pardon for the Sheriff. And, as well, what do you say to your critics, even some in your own party, who say it was the wrong thing to do?

Trump laid out his defenses, in verse. Note that, in the middle of his statement (right after the 'Crazy' verse below), he recited a number of pardons made by other presidents: Clinton (Marc Rich, Susan Rosenberg, Carlos Vignali) and Obama (Chelsea Manning, Oscar Lopez Rivera), as if by comparison (always by comparison) he stands alone and above all others who have come before.

 Rating and Raving

Well, 

a lot of people

think it was

the right thing

to do John.

And actually

in the middle of a

hurricane, 

even though it was a

Friday evening, 

I assumed the ratings

would be far higher

than they would normally be.

You know

the hurricane was just starting

and I put it out there

that I had pardoned,

as we say,

Sheriff Joe.

Why, You Ask?

He's

done a great job

for the people of

Arizona.

He's

very strong

on borders

very strong

on illegal immigration.

He

is loved

in Arizona.

Fairly Unfairly

I thought

he was treated

unbelievable unfairly

when they came down

with their big decision

to go get him

right before the election

voting started, 

as you know.

And he lost

in a fairly close

election.

He would have won

the election,

but they just 

hammered him just

before the election.

I thought

that was a

very

very unfair thing

to do.

Crazy

When I

mentioned him

the other night - 

(you saw the

massive crowd we had.)

The people went

crazy 

when I said

What do you think

of Sheriff Joe?

or something

to that effect.

The place went

absolutely

crazy

when I 

was in Arizona

last week.

Sheriff Joe

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.

And he

was elected

many times.

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.

Thank you

very much.