House Republicans Must Explain to Latino Constituents Why They Still Support Trump’s Divisive Agenda
As President Trump considers pardoning Joe Arpaio, a racist and convicted criminal, during his Arizona rally tonight, local and national editorial boards are taking a stand and making clear that “an Arpaio pardon would appear to support racism” and it would also “shred Republican hopes among Hispanic voters.”
This pardon would only build on Trump’s long history of attacking hardworking Latino Americans, and further damage the Republican Party and House Republicans’ standing with immigrant and Latino communities.
Republicans fact a stark political reality: The House battlefield is increasingly diverse, which means that more and more House Republicans will be forced to answer for their support of President Trump and his anti-immigrant record. Trump’s speech and potential pardon of Arpaio requires a response from those who represent large Hispanic districts, including Jeff Denham (CA-10), David Valadao (CA-22), Steve Knight (CA-25), Darrell Issa (CA-49), Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25), Carlos Curbelo (FL-26), John Culberson (TX-07), Will Hurd (TX-23), Pete Sessions (TX-32), and ESPECIALLY Martha McSally (AZ-02).
“Joe Arpaio was rightly convicted of contempt when he refused to stop racially profiling Latinos in Arizona and has long used his post to violate their basic human rights for more than two decades, and for President Trump to even consider pardoning him is unacceptable,” said Javier Gamboa of the DCCC. “Trump’s Arpaio deliberations only build the already clear-cut case for Latino voter across the country that the values of the Republican Party go against their rights, and they will remember when casting their votes in the midterms.”
READ THE EDITORIALS BELOW:
USA Today: Joe Arpaio doesn’t deserve a pardon
Invoking the presidential pardon power for this man — former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio — at this time would further shred whatever semblance of moral authority the president retains, not to mention Republican hopes of making inroads among Hispanic voters.
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“Latinos taken into custody were abused, and hundreds of crimes, many against children, were unsolved. This is the kind of person worthy of a pardon?”
AZ Central: Our View: Donald Trump’s Phoenix rally will test him — and us
Arpaio is a lightning rod. Always has been. He was finally defeated in the last election and recently convicted of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos.
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The conviction was viewed as justice – albeit delayed – especially among Arizona’s Latino population, the vast majority of whom are not undocumented but were nevertheless put in jeopardy by Arpaio’s illegal enforcement practices.
Washington Post: This would be a travesty of justice
Pardoning Mr. Arpaio now would throw a bone to the president’s partisans on the racist alt-right just days after Mr. Trump fed them a juicy steak by explicitly equating the neo-Nazis, anti-Semites and Ku Klux Klansmen in Charlottesville with those who marched against them. If Mr. Trump wants to further inflame and divide America, there would be few more effective ways to do it than by granting clemency to a man whose political career was based on contempt for Latinos generally and Hispanic undocumented immigrants specifically.
The Daily Courier: No pardon for Arpaio
“But, understand: an Arpaio pardon would appear to support racism — a central argument in opposition to racial profiling — and would add more mud to Trump’s coattails that started to accumulate when he tried to disavow white nationalists whose rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent and deadly.”