White House braces for thousands of protesters outside Phoenix rally where Trump could PARDON famed ‘tent city’ sheriff Joe Arpaio
Two Facebook groups have a combined 5,600 RSVPs for anti-Trump Phoenix protests on Tuesday
Just 500 showed up a year ago when then-candidate Trump delivered an immigration speech there
The president could issue an official pardon on Tuesday to former sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt last month
Arpaio defied a judge’s order to halt arrests based on racial profiling of illegal immigrants
By David Martosko, US Political Editor
DailyMail.com
21 August 2017
Thousands of protesters could descend on Downtown Phoenix tomorrow as Preident Donald Trump makes his first visit to Arizona since winning the White House.
A combined 5,600 people have said they plan to attend, judging from RSVPs on two Facebook advertisements for anti-Trump rallies.
One features a logo incorporating the number ’45’ – Trump is the 45th US. president – in a mockup of the Nazi swastika. The other includes a graphic of Trump with Ku Klux Klansmen, and is advertised under the title ‘White Supremacy Will Not Be Pardoned.’
That’s a reference to reports that Trump may issue a presidential pardon on Tuesday night to former sheriff Joe Arpaio.
‘If protesters come, they come,’ a White House official told DailyMail.com on Sunday. ‘The president isn’t going to change who he is or what he’s doing because of loud and obnoxious people who are never going to like him no matter what.’
‘I am seriously considering a pardon for Sheriff Arpaio,’ the president said a week ago, talking to the Fox News Channel. ‘He has done a lot in the fight against illegal immigration. He’s a great American patriot and I hate to see what has happened to him.’
Arpaio, the 85-year-old Maricopa County official who loudly endorsed Trump last year, was convicted of misdemeanor criminal contempt last month for defying a 2011 court order to stop traffic patrols that targeted Hispanic illegal immigrants.
He could face six months in federal prison when he’s sentenced in October.
In an interview Thursday, Arpaio told NPR that he would welcome a Trump pardon.
‘It makes me feel good that at least someone is backing me up. And how much better can you get than president of the United States?’ Arpaio said.
‘As far as the situation on a pardon, I didn’t ask for it but I will accept it if he does do it.’
It would be highly unusual to offer Oval Office clemency to a convict who hasn’t even launched a legal appeal.
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