so sheriff arpaio connected to that. is that some connection, a connection to anyone in the white house is concerned about? >> reporter: it's not clear why the chpresident and sheriff joe developed this close relationship, but again, you point out this birther thing. the timing of this is just terrible for president trump. people are questioning what his view is of race relations in america, particularly in the wake of those comments in charlottesville and you saw him when he was the president and on stage in phoenix angry about the fact that anyone would suggest that he might be a racist, that anyone could suggest he was equivocating white supremacists. deh he did do that. so if you're a person in this country concerned where our president stands on race relations, i don't think that this pardon is going to make you feel better about this situation, john. >> sarah murray for us at the white house. you're talking about whether or not he equivocated white supremacists with the other marcher. gary cohn suggested that he di

he pardon joe arpaio. sheriff joe arpaio in his first pardon showing a willingness to issue what some people consider to be political pardons. does this send a message for what he might be willing to do down the line to people who may be connected with him that could be in some kind of trouble with the various russian investigations. >> they've already been talking about that. newt gingrich was talking about that back in december. i was on a phone interview with npr. newt gingrich was on the same phone interview. we talked about those issues. gingrich said he can pardon people if there's a problem. they were talking that way a couple weeks ago to the point of the president pardoning himself. i think one thing that's gone on here is this is a trial balloon here to see how much of a reaction there is to a pardon here of a lawless sheriff and this is not just about -- it is about the rule of law. it is about immigration as well because he enforced immigration laws in a discriminatory manner which is what the

if they were under arpaio's watch.taying in deadly heat, we know that rights were violated. also the fact that he went against a federal judge's orders about not detaining people. what was the tate and -- state of mind for people in your family and that you now fighting for about his time as sheriff? was it constant fear? >> it was constant terror. it was constant terror and trauma for a lot of families. my family was just one of the many in the thousands of families that were living in fear. what arpaio did is unpardonable. it is unhumane. not only the fact that he was going hunting and targeting us as latinos, ask as people of color, because he was chasing the camera and chasing the attention, but we have stories like marty art encio who was beat and hurt and brutalized and murdered by his deputies. we have culture of violence. we have over 400 cases of abuse -- sexual abuse, a lot of them children, that never got investigated because he was too busy becoming -- being a show, being a political show. we had families t

he pardoned joe arpaio.onth the self proclaimed toughest sheriff in america was convicted of criminal contempt. the federal judge ruling that he di disobeyed another judge's order to stop using racial profiling to target latinos. he said he didn't mean to violate the order and it wasn't clear. president trump didn't agree with the judge who convicted arpaio. >> so, was sheriff joe convicted for doing his job? i'll make a prediction. i think he's going to be just fine. okay? >> joining us now, steve montenegro. he's a republican state senator from arizona. we have with us jorge ramos. anchor of univision. senator montenegro, let me start with you. arizona has two republicans in the u.s. senate, both of them came out against the pardon of sheriff arpaio done this way. senator jeff flake tweeting, quote, regarding the sheriff joe arpaio pardon, i would have preferred that the president honor the judicial process and let it take its course. senator john mccain was blunter tweeting, quote, the president's pardon

why would trump pardon joe arpaio. >> arpaio jumped on the trump train long before his presidential runheriff arpaio was doing. >> it was just easy to endorse him because everything i believe in, he's doing and he's going to do it when he becomes president. >> you know for a guy whose not racist, donald trump sure has a lot of racist friends, yeah. he's like the straight guy at the gym that all the gay guys hit on. (laughter). >> trevor: maybe they know something you don't. just maybe. and there may be another reason. it feels like trump did this not just to reward arpaio's loyalty but to send a message to all his other kroanies from the campaign, hey, guys, good news, we get our own set of laws. you don't need to cooperate with mueller and the russia investigation, i'll just pardon you. and here is what tells me that this is really just about trump sending a message to not sweat the judicial branch, right. the fact that arpaio hadn't even been sentenced yet. he pardoned him before the sentencing. and at most, at most, he would have had to spend six months in jail. that's it. you don't

arpaio thanked trump on twitter.alled him a worthy candidate for a pardon after, quote, a life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. then another bombshell, senior white house advice sebastian gorka out. he was a high profile spokesperson, they predicted would be time that gorka since steve of staff john kelly took the job. and a signed memorandum by president trump blocking transgenders from joining the military. it's a reversal from an order from president obama. president trump ordered a six-month study of transgenders in the military to be carried out by secretary of defense james mattis. in the meantime, it is unclear what it means for troops currently serving. so, while many questions still loom, it is little mystery why these three stories broke tonight. alex marquardt, cnn, washington. >>> and joe arpaio is known for taking a hard line against undocumented immigrants. >> our sara sidner has a look. >> reporter: the case against arpaio and the department's behavior

joe arpaio. kept america safe. reaction to the president's pardon of sheriff arpaio has been swift. till us about it. >> swift. >> swift and growing condemnation on both sides. we should note that right out of the gate, the justice department and others are making it clear that this was distinctly president trump's decision. this was a call by him. this was a personal pardon by the president. a spokesman saying we respect his decision. a source telling cnn, this is the president's pardon. joe arpaio was a staunch supporter of president trump's during the campaign. i was the sur garogate on the campaign trail. he was convicted of criminal contempt for refusing to stop racially pro pilifiling latinos. there was a lot of speculation as to whether the president would be announcing a part at the rally. that speculation because the president's approval has narrowed. he has played more and more to the base. and this is the kind of thing they would like to see. in fact, i was at that rally. he asked the

by pardoning arpaio, president trump is defending racism.riminated against latinos. he was convicted of criminal contempt of court. not only that, the department of justice, aclu, two judges agreed that he practiced and promoted racial profiling. in other words, he was accused of racism. sheriff arpaio discrippminated against millions and that's the man, during the middle of a hurricane, president trump pardoned. >> i do remember i'm an immigrant myself. president trump has supported me in the past and for years as well. the narrative that the left tries to push that republicans are racist. if you're looking at the screen right now and think i'm a white republican, you need to adjust your screen. this is the narrative that the left continues to push against republicans and it's simply not true. look, the judges that started this case in the first place, first of all, the judge should have recused herself. she had a family member that was part of the original lawsuit against sheriff joe. she should have recused herself in the first place. whe

joe arpaio wasn't doing that.ted by the justice department for rounding up people who looked like they could be illegal immigrants. it screamed of profiling. it wasn't a new practice and you know this. you know this. you know who joe arpaio is and was. so do i. this wasn't about the law because the law is -- the federal government does immigration not the states. you can't be in contradiction to federal law. and federal law doesn't allow profiling. that's what joe arpaio was doing. two different judges said it. >> well, actually i disagree to a degree, chris. and the first thing is that who would have imagined the federal government who had support from a state that passed a statute that was designed to match up exactly with federal law so they could support federal law, who would have imagined that later on the supreme court would find parts of that unconstitutional? i don't agree with their decision, but joe arpaio couldn't have known that when he put his program in place. joe arpaio was living underneath the 28

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the pardon of sheriff joe arpaio. the president tweeted, thank you@realdonald trump, for seeing my conviction for what its. a political witch-hunt by holdovers in the obama justice department. what do you know, alex? >> don, really no coincidence that all of this is coming out not just on a friday night on a night when so much of the country and world's atonetion is on the massive storm, barreling towards the southern part of the country. we knew the president was considering pardoning, sheriff joe arpaio. could come soon. we had no indication this would happen tonight. arpaio is a deeply controversial sheriff from, from maricopa county, arizona, a staunch supporter of president trump's on the campaign trail. he was convicted of criminal contempt, for refusing to stop racially profiling latinos. we're told by a spokesman for the justice department that the president exercised his lawful authority and we respect his decision. in other word, don, the justice department had no role in arpaio's pardon. a source telling cn

rudy giuliani, sheriff clark and joe arpaio. it's clear his perception is that he considers violence against those who do on not consider to be true americans and who one day might rise up against him politically. it's not even that important. it's not like arpaio was in jail and he was taking him out, but i think this goes even further and that is the problem. if he will use his pardoning power this early in his administration for someone who was clearly wrong by -- >> and convicted. >> convicted. imagine what he will do the moment he starts to -- >> three weeks after he made this good people on both side, violence on both sides. i mean charlottesville just happened and you will pardon someone for racial profiling. and the transgender thing. to come with this kind of declaration on transgender people in the military while you're talking about engaging in afghanistan, the signal there again, divide. divisiveness. >> and i don't care about people in texas, i don't care about the law, i don't care about the rule of law and i don't

joe arpaio from irrelevance."da valdez, welcome to democracy now! in these last few minutes, first, respond to what message send come then talks about sheriff arpaio's history and what he did, this whole issue of racial profiling and harassment. as farce the message it sends, it sends a clear message that donald trump is not interested in being the president of all of the people of this country. he is interested in being president of a very small republican base that put him in office from the same group of people that has been joe arpaio's base for many, many years. it is a troubling message. it is a message that says the president of the united states does not respect the constitution and the requirement that all people be treated equally under the constitution. and he does not have much respect for the judicial branch of government because that process, the process under which arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt of court, that was a judicial process that had been going on for years and years. it had not r

trump called arpaio "an american patriot" who "kept arizona safe!" in a tweet of his own, arpaio thanked the president and called his conviction last month "a political witch hunt by holdovers in the obama justice department." however, the f.b.i. investigation of arpaio for civil rights violations began during the administration of george w. bush. the pardon was unusual in that arpaio had yet to be sentenced and had not expressed any remorse for his crime, nor was any pardon application submitted for justice department review. this is the first pardon by president trump, and it comes much earlier into his time in office than the first pardons by previous presidents barack obama or george w. bush. some arizona republicans, including a former governor, applauded the pardon, while others like senator john mccain said the pardon "undermines" mr. trump's claim "for the respect of the rule of law." democratic senate leader chuck schumer denounced the pardon, saying arpaio "systematically" targeted latinos, which schumer called the "definition of racism and

arpaio, i was doing a podcast with him, arpaio was sulking for an hour because trump hadn't sent him a birthday message. these two men have a personal, i guess you could say on some level, a co-dependence. they see the world in a very similar way. arpaio, we know all of the issues involving his sort of treatment of prisoners, throwing them out into the desert in 100-degree weather, feeding them minimal meals, making them wear pink underwear, obviously very zealously pursuing immigrants, both legal and illegal. but what arpaio really represents, ari, is the alpha trump voter. he is from pennsylvania. he is 85 years old. he went south as so many snow birds did, white working class people, to kind of move away what they thought was a change in the northeast. it's very important to understand that that's what he represents. one other thing, donald trump won arizona by 3.5 or 3.6 percentage points last year. when you factor in third party candidates, they got about 7% of the vote. arizona is moving away from republicans rather rapidly. so i think you look at the ages of the two pro tag in

robando su seguro social. >>> esteche riffo arpaio es francamente un animal.s, que hemos vivido en este paÍs con el dolor que ha pasado este paÍs y la divisiÓn y el trauma que pasa este paÍs por lo el charlotteville este presiono pudo sin equivocarse sin titubear denunciar a los ne nazis, denunciar a los supere ma zirbs blancos que despuÉs de que hizo una orden diciendo que los trans gÉneros no podÍan servir en el trans gÉnero. que causa este trama y gar le esta bofetada a la comunidad latina y los que cree en los derechos civiles es simplemente una raya mÁs en la cebra que es donald trump. >>> >>> ana y sergio se nos acaba el tiempo les quiero agradecer ambos la gentileza de estar con nosotros este domingo muchas gracias. >>> muchas gracias josÉ. >>> al regresar. la casa blanca responde sobre este suceso que afectarÍa a cientos de miles de jÓvenes. estarÍa el presidente apunto de cancelar daca. >>> esto y mÁs al re gr sar en esta ediciÓn especial de enfoque desde victoria texas [mujer 2] oye, no te preocupes, seguro que el cliente va a quedar contento... [muj

and joe arpaio really embodies that.dy -- their relationship blossomed after that birtherism. it cemented itself in july 2015 when the president -- or donald trump as a candidate went to phoenix. and joe arpaio stood with him. they campaigned together. they are one in the same when it comes to the immigration issue. donald trump's beliefs are joe arpaio's beliefs. and when we talk about him and we talk about all the wild things that donald trump does on a daily basis, we're not talking about anything else that's going on in this country. our attention is solely focused on whatever donald trump says or does on a given day. >> you know, it's interesting. i just want to point this out because we've talked about the fight between donald trump and the party. there's a fight in the administration between donald trump and his own administration. rex tillerson, secretary of state was on another sunday morning program on fox and he's asked by chris wallace if the president speaks for american values on race, and rex tillerson's q

the arpaio tweet was coming.nted at it not so subtly the other day when he was in arizona. maybe the staff was trying to bury it because they knew they were going to have to do it one way or the other. maybe trying to turn attention on himself. both of those arguments are really easy to make. he criticized the past hurricane. the damage and devastation is still on going and this morning he's tweeting about himself. he's tweeting about how he's going to missouri and how he won that state by a lot. he's also tweeting an endorsement for a book by sheriff clark. so his attention is not wholey focused on the millions of people in this country who are dealing with a massive flood situation. >> republicans on capitol hill uncomfortable at best and apoplectic at worst. >> what's confusing to me i see all the republicans that are responding to the criticism that he has laid out against them in his war against his own party. the problem is they don't have their own narrative. what is it that the republicans on capitol hill

arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions.senator flake says he would have preferred the president honor the judicial process and let it take its course. >> sheriff arpaio has been a controversial and pretty divisive figure in arizona politics for decades. sara sidner has a closer look at his policy and the relationship with the president. >> reporter: the case against sheriff arpaio began in 2007, a class-action lawsuit accused him of implementing a policy of racial profiling. arpaio was sued, accused of encouraging his deputies to retain people for no other reason than they were suspected of being in the country illegally. known for his tough-speak, his department's workplace raids, the tent city where inmates were housed and the pink underwear he made inmates wear, arpaio argued his department was simply enforcing the law. >> i'm the appointed sheriff. i report directly to the people. i won't be subservient to the federal government when they have come up with no proof. >> reporter: but arpaio lost his argument in the civil

arpaio and his deputies defied the order. arpaio claimed that the order wasn't clear and he didn't mean to violate it... but a federal judge found arpaio showed a flagrant disregard for the court's order.his critics cheered the decision. mary rose wilcox/former maricopa county supervisor: "racism in any form is wrong and joe arpaio again has been the center of racist policies and racist attitudes and he has been criminally convicted." from the start in 1999 when sheriff joe arpaio was elected to officehe began a crusade against undocumented immigrants. his deputies actions terrified not only undocumented immigrants but anyone who looked like they could be.nats: donald trump will build the law.arpaio's fiery speech, and immigration policies .gave him a kind of celebrity status in conservative circlesand a kinship with the man who would become the 45th president. sara sidner cnn los angeles ( marty ) president trump has signed a directive - banning transgender troops from serving in the military. the new approach is based on gu

last night he pardoned controversial former arizona sheriff joe arpaio. white house announced the deputy assistant is out. trump also issued a presidential directive bands transgenders in the military. oliver the carsy is joining us now. do you see this as a news dump from the administration or is it different because of the timing of hurricane harvey and throwing this out when the biggest storm in time last decade was barreling towards the u.s.? >> usually when administrations want to get negative news out, they do it on holiday weekends before the fourth of july or whatever it may be. seems like in this case they took advantage of news networks focusing on this huge storm baur barreling texas, and so they issued this directive bands transgender individuals from the military and joe arpaio had been pardoned. they knew we could not cover all this news at once in addition to a large hurricane. so it seems sort of like a deliberate strategy here. >> this news is going to out at some point, even if it wasn't on friday night during the hurricane barreling tow

joe arpaio notably was awaiting sentence. but the presidential power of pardon is just about absolute. presidents can pardon americans in any -- at any stage of a legal action. and tonight, what was broadly hinted at, all but promised by the president at that raucous tuesday night rally in phoenix, arizona, has come true. to talk about this, the first of our white house stories, on the phone with us, our friend and colleague, the host of our 4:00 p.m. hour here at msnbc, nicolle wallace, the former white house communications director, of course under president bush 43. nicolle, you're reaction. >> well, it's important to stipulate, after listening to the top of your show, that i was the white house communications director during hurricane katrina, where the president for whom i worked suffered a lot of political damage for responding in a way that was judged as subpar. most importantly, by the people who lived there, by the victims of that storm. and to see someone, those were mistakes made inadvertently, those were, you know

arpaio was sued.nown for his tough speak, his department's workplace raids, the tenth city where inmates were house asked the pink underwear he made inmates wear, arpaio argued he was simply enforcing the law. >> i'm not going to be subserveiant to federal government when they have come up with no proof. >> reporter: but arpaio lost his argument in the civil lawsuit. on october 13th the federal government put an injunction in place. according to prosecutors and a federal judge arpaio and his deputies defied the order. arpaio claimed the order wasn't clear and he didn't mean to violate it. but a federal judge found arpaio showed a flagrant disregard. >> racism in any form is wrong, and joe arpaio again has been the center of racist policies and racist attitudes. and he has been criminally convicted. >> reporter: from the start when he was elected into office he began a crusade. his actions terrified not only the undocumented but anyone who looked like they could be. arpaio's speech gave him a celebrity

arpaio thanked trump on twitter. for a pardon after, quote, a life's work of protecting the public from the scourges of crime and illegal immigration. then another bombshell. senior white house counterterrorism agent sebastian gorka out. he was a vocal and high-profile spokesman for the president formerly in the camp of steve bannon in the white house. and with bannon out, it was just a matter of time before gorka was as well. spart of the house cleaning that chief of staff john kelly has undertaken since he took the job. and with no fanfare, a third piece of news, a signed memorandum from president trump blocking transgenders from joining the military. president trump ordered a six-month study of transgenders in the military, to be carried out by secretary of defense james mattis. in the meantime, it is unclear what that means for transgender troops currently serving. much of it will be up to the department of defense and homeland security. so, while many questions still loom, it is little mystery, why these three s

arpaio and he have been allied for quite some time. i don't think anybody should be surprised that he did it. regarding this article in "the washington post" where he asked about dropping the criminal case, it doesn't seem wrong to me. the president sought legal advise on what they could do. so then he found a very ordinary, very legal and very constitutional way the achieve his objective which, of course, is fully allowable and legal under the law. i think there's going to be a lot of outrage, but i don't know that it's warranted here. >> yes, very legal. i hear you on the legality. i'm not arguing with you whatsoever on that. but alice let me reference part of senator mccain's statement. the president has the authority to make this pardon, obviously this is before "the washington post" reporting came out. but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of the rule of law as sheriff arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions. isn't this another issue where people will say this is a president believing he's above the la

joe arpaio more about him.more on his relationship and legacy with president trump. >> reporter: the case against arpaio and his behavior began in 2007. a class action lawsuit accused him of implementing racial profiling and organizing unwarranted stops of latinos. known for his tough speak, his departments workplace raids the ten city where inmates were house requested the pink jurn wear, arpaio argued his department was simply enforcing the law. >> i'm the elected sheriff, i report directly to the people and i'm not going to be subserve yant to the federal government when they come up with no proof. >> reporter: arpaio lost his argument in a lawsuit. in 2013, a federal judge put an injunction in the place ordering the department to halt unpolicing practices. arpaio and his deputies defied the order. arpaio claim the order wasn't clear and didn't mean to violate. a federal judge found arpaio showed a disregard for the court's order. his critics cheered the decision. >> racism in any form is wrong and joe arpai

law adding that arpaio showed no remorse.aio thanked the president. >> i have always said pardon or no pardon, i'll stick with him as long as he is the president. >> arpaio calls his conviction a political witch hunt and will have more to say next week. mary bruce, washington. >> our firefighters contending with a fire in new castle county. this video was shot by a viewer after it started around noon. no one was injured but as you can see the house was severely damaged. no word how it started. >> the newest flock of blue hens landed at campus. the first weekend at u.d. features festivities designed to welcome freshmen including a publicky play date tomorrow. >> a younger generation was getting ready for school in the germantown section. the action cam was outside the school for the pep rally, circle of prayer and backpack give away. these kids also enjoyed face painting and ice cream as well. this is made possible by e none tabernacle baptist church. >> we are talking beautiful weather in our neck of the woods. wait until you

of arpaio. we went through his record. i don't think there has ever been a case like this before where you saw a pardon for someone defying a court to pursue racist ends. >> i personally don't like what sheriff arpaio did with the racial profiling. the president never said he endorsed any of that. >> he said he kept arizona safe. had admirable service. >> look, the guy was elected how many times in phoenix? i mean, he has a long record. 50 years of public service. and i think, you know, the president looked at this and said, wait a minute. let's give this guy a pardon. the process for a pardon is very easy. the constitution says the president can give a pardon. >> no question he has power. >> i think this was about one thing. that's trump's base. he's nervous about his base. the fact is that's not his biggest problem, though. his biggest problems are the arpaio pardon feeds into this is that he has moderate republicans dropping off. he has leaders in congress questioning whether they want to be

the white house said that arpaio is 85 years old. after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he's a worthy candidate for a presidential pardon. the president made the ban on transgender troops official. signing an order that directs the pentagon to move forward on the ban. though it remains unclear what will happen to transgender personnel currently serving. the order bans the department of defense from providing medical treatment to transgender service members. to top it off, the ousting of sebastian gorkgorka. he had ties to far right political groups and called islam an inherently violent religion. all of this on a night when a category storm, the biggest in more than a decade is hitting the united states and many of us journalists are covering that. but you know what, we have a great deal of capacity. we can cover the storm and all of the other stuff that's happening as we will do right now. joining us now are curtis lee, political reporter for the l.a. times. and national political reporter for "the new york ti

he flattered arpaio and then they became friends and then last year on the campaign trail, arpaio was a surrogate. arpaio is 85 years old, he has health problems. he couldn't stomach the law and order icon, someone who served in the military, who has been a beat cop, someone like that to waste away in the jail cell and the president didn't want him to face jail crime. >> all right. you have some reporting in the paper in, the "wall street journal" just on where things stand on the -- on nbc, i'm thinking of your prior employer. over the mueller investigation that got overlooked in some of the coverage of all this hurricane harvey material. tell us -- brief us on things in muellerville right now. >> sure. our reporting was on the new subpoenas that went out last week. basically there -- that mueller has subpoenaed six pr firms in washington, d.c., that did work with paul manafort on -- in a lobbying effort. international lobbying effort, basically. the stated purpose for this it was for ukraine's bid to enter the european union. the subpoenas that are now they had subpoenaed documents.

arpaio showed a disregard for the court order.itics cheer the decision. >> racism in any form is wrong and joe arpaio, again, has been the center of racist policies and racist attitudes and criminally convicted. >> reporter: from the start in 1999 when he was elected to office, he began a crew said against undocumented immigrants. deputies actions terrified not only the undocumented but anyone who looked like they could be. >> donald trump will build the wall. >> reporter: arpaio's firy speech gave him a celebrity status in conservative circles and a kinship for the man who would become the 45th president. arpaio jumped on the trump train supporting the birther lie about president obama. for his part, president donald trump supported the crew said against undocumented immigrants. now, when he needs it, arpaio may get the best support ever, from president trump. a pardon. sara sidner, cnn, los angeles. >> thanks to sara for that report. with racial tensions already iflamed by president trump's remarks, he will visit the arizona bor

he was -- he was laying out the case for pardoning sheriff arpaio, former sheriff arpaio. >> yeah, it was interesting he did that. look, this is something the president has been wanting to do for many months now. donald trump had formed a relationship with joe arpaio back five years ago when they were both the faces of the birther movement. >> this is the false conspiracy lie about president obama's birth place in hawaii, and they were both doing their investigations into the birth certificate. they became avatars and friends and soul mates and became friends on the campaign trail as well. and trump is looking out for him, and trying to protect him irrespective of what the judge found in that trial there. joe arpaio, as sheriff of maricopa county, has a long history of accusations of racial profiling and a number of other poor policing tactics. and president trump is sort of looking past that to help out his political friend. >> it went beyond that, though because, phil, you reported this weekend, the president asked the attorney general jeff sessions about whether it would be possibl

sheriff joe arpaio.official, signing an order that directs the pentagon to move forward on the ban. all of this while the hurricane was hitting. not to mention news that special counsel robert mueller subpoenaed pr executives that worked with former campaign manager paul manafort. welcome to you both. thank you for being here. i want to be clear, joy reid tweeted, she's just on vacation, but she tweeted friday night trump pardoned racist convicted criminal joe arpaio, signed a transgender military ban with a monster hurricane as cover. creativity points to joy on that particular one. but katherine, we actually can walk and chew gum at the same time. as i was on the air friday night, i was reminding people, we can cover all of this, we can do all of this. no amount of distraction prevents us covering what has to be covered, but it seemed unseemly gl maybe we can cover it, spend time talking about it. doesn't mean the american public has the band width to process all of these crises and breaking news event

so by issuing a pardon on friday night to former sheriff joe arpa arpaio, president trump got joe arpaio to confess his guilt by accepting that pardon. 102 years ago, the united states supreme court said that a pardon, quote, carries an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it. so one thing that you don't hear from presidents who issue pardons is that the person pardoned did nothing wrong because the person pardoned has just admitted guilt. but that's what president trump seems to want us to believe about joe arpaio. in a brief press conference with the president of finland today, president trump offered a childish defense of his pardon of joe arpaio. the president didn't actually defend his pardon as much as he attacked what he said were the bad pardons issued by previous presidents, including some cases that were not pardons at all but simply clemencies and reductions of sentences. but defending your actions by saying other people have done the same thing is not actually a defense of your actions as you will discover the next time you're pulled over for driving through

the fact that he pardoned joe arpaio and endorsed the racism joe arpaio has demonstrated. >> that's aiculous accusation. just throw out racist when you disagree with someone. joe arpaio bravely served his country. he's a hero. he's a veteran. he served his country wonderfully. we did was enforced the immigration laws despite federal overreach. the 9th circuit court is wildly liberal and politically left. did sheriff joe arpaio do everything perfectly? no. he ran on immigration laws. are you going to subjugate an 85-year-old veteran who served his country. i'm not a huge fan of presidential pardons, but i don't see anything wrong with this. lisa: i want to play you sound from the rally tuesday night from president trump on the wall. >> the obstructionist democrats would like us not to do it. but we have to close down our government we'll build that wall. his * what are your thoughts on how the wall stands in congress? >> the wall doesn't stand high enough. i'm so fed up with congress. why they took the move august off. they have the gal t -- they have gall to take off the entire month

pardoning sheriff joe arpaio, was actually his backup plan. coming up-- what he originally planned to do... plus-- dramatic rescues in texas, as flood waters rise. stormwatch 7 weather is tracking the impact of harvey-- as thousands of people try to escape the rising water. school today - potential for a tropical storm (irma) to develop off se coast later today (could impact us locally tomorrow with cool showers) - harvey continues to bring life-threatening flooding to east tx - dry start to labor day weekend; rain from harvey by sunday increasing clouds. unseasonably cool and breezy. highs: 76-78 winds: e 5-10+ mph tonight: mostly cloudy. stray shower. lows: 58-67 winds: ene 5-10 mph tuesday: mostly cloudy. cool with showers. highs: 70-74 winds: ne 5-10+ mph the mtv video music awards were out of this world. bring you all the highlights from the big show. z2gv6z zi0z y2gv6y yi0y ito become dangerous.d for an everyday item new tide pods child guard pack. helps keep your laundry pacs safe and your child safer. align, press and unzip. decimate t

i think the arpaio pardon is straightforward. george, as you know, the president you worked for and just about every modern president ends up with some controversial pardons. i think the president has been pretty clear on it. it's not fair to characterize him about not caring about the rule of law. >> that came from senator mccain and speaker of the house paul ryan, as well. you're absolutely right. presidents have absolute pardon power. president clinton got criticized for his pardon of mark rich. but this is somewhat different. president trump said arpaio was con vicked for quote doing his job. how is defis a court order to protect constitutional rights doing his job? >> as i understand it, it was a contempt order, not an issue of -- of his job or not his job. i don't know the details of it. i know the president is clear about his defense of it and his decision. i'm pretty certain, too, george this is not something that will threaten our constitutional order. >> that is being -- disputed by the speaker of the house, paul ryan,

arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions."nwhile, arpaio told the arizona republic in an interview friday that he would not have handled his immigration sweeps any differently, saying -- "my guys did nothing wrong, and i didn't do anything wrong." your response? >> well, my response is that has o.o. since them. beginning. he is much like trump that he does not admit he makes mistakes. as first john mccain, his quote is right on target. gets things right. as far as trump's concern, he is been right more than wrong on this issue.. i want to address the point that the president made in his pardon that arpaio has given a lot of service. the 20 years he was sheriff of maricopa county were not good years, as far as a law man is concerned. he devoted a great chill of energy to his immigration -- greatt deal of energy to his immigration sweeps that were profiling latinos. he diverted resources and funding from other important law-enforcement processes. there were 400 plus sexual assault cases that were not investigated by his departme

arpaio running against flake?nlyel president would be eager to endorse -- obviously he is eager to endorse a challenger to flake. what you said about arpaio says something broader about the trump presidency. i think it's more of a culture alpresidency than it is a policy president. >> da. >> when you talk about arpaio when law and order and how it plays in, i do think it's more of his nod to the kind of cowboy cultured alinstincts that arpaio represents aern a literal, you know, nod to being a law and order president. >> policy was not top of mind during the campaign and it doesn't seem at least the moment to be top of mind at least during this presidency. we'll get to the latest in the russia investigation later this hour. stick with us for that. but first, an update on the rescue efforts in texas as tropical storm harvey moves into louisiana. a full report ahead. >> we are just beginning the process of responding to this storm. this is not a cloud. this is a tomato tracked from farm to table on a blockchain, hel