When the White House announced Trump’s ridiculously unpopular decision to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday night, Trump wasn’t trying to get the news lost amid all the Hurricane Harvey coverage—he actually was trying to get more attention for his despicable abuse of power. In a response to a reporter during a Monday press conference with Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö, justifying the pardon he said:
Well, a lot of people think it was the right thing to do. Actually, in the middle of a hurricane, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they were normally. And I put it out that I had pardoned, as we say, Sheriff Joe.
Trump then devolves into rambly BS about the racist sheriff, claiming Arpaio’s violent, racist past has been good for the state of Arizona.
Watch a clip of Trump’s remarks below: