So, So what's worse: Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of disobeying a court order and got pardoned by Trump as well as being accused of violating the rights of Latinos, running for the Senate in Arizona or Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of stealing 750,000 pages of classified information and releasing them to WikilLeaks and whose sentence was commuted by Obama, is going to run for the Senate in Maryland? It's a mark of shame for both parties. Both should be in prison instead of having been pardoned or having their sentences commuted just because both Trump and Obama were playing to their bases.
Apparently, Joe Arpaio didn't know that, when he accepted Trump's pardon, he was confessing guilt.
When Joe Arpaio accepted a pardon from President Donald Trump after his conviction for violating a court order, he apparently didn’t realize that he was admitting wrongdoing. Enter MSNBC’s Ari Melber, who broke the news to the man who recently announced his candidacy for United States Senate. What ensued was quite the awkward exchange, where Arpaio insisted he did nothing wrong, only for Melber to inform him that he’s already said otherwise. The relevant portion of the interview begins at the 1:00 mark in the clip above.
Melber didn’t waste any time in his interview, immediately asking the former Maricopa County Sheriff, “Why should you get a promotion to write laws, when you yourself didn’t follow court orders?”
Arpaio responded by noting that his conviction was for a misdemeanor, and that President Trump pardoned him, “because he knew that this decision was wrong, and I appreciate that pardon.”
“As you know, when you take a pardon, you’re admitting guilt. Why did you take that pardon and admit guilt?”
“I didn’t admit guilt,” Arpaio said. “I said I was not guilty, and I say it today.”
Oh boy. Melber continued to push on the issue, and it just got more uncomfortable from there.
“But you accepted the pardon,” Melber persisted, “and you know under the law that is an admission of guilt.”
“No, I don’t know about that, you’ll have to talk to the legal scholars about that.”
Well, Melber didn’t have to talk to any other legal scholars, being that he is a lawyer, and he cited the Supreme Court decision that indeed says that a pardon is an admission.
In Burdick v. United States, the Court said a pardon “carries an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it.”
do you think Arpaio's candidacy is just an opportunity to replay the disaster of Roy Moore's candidacy in Alabama? Is that a good idea, or just more of the don't do what's best for America?I like Joe Arpaio, however, the other GOP candidate, Martha McSally, has a great resume and AND is the first woman to be an Air Force combat pilot.