This might be mixing metaphors, but the “law and order” president is proving to be all hat and no cattle.
Donald Trump today has pardon two men who took over a public wildlife refuge in Oregon, creating a standoff. They were convicted of a felony, sentenced to prison and now the president has commuted their sentence.
According to CNN.com: Dwight Hammond Jr. and his son Steven Hammond were granted executive grants of clemency by Trump, according to a White House statement. The father-son duo are cattle ranchers and were convicted in 2012 of committing arson on federal lands in Oregon.
“Justice is overdue for Dwight and Steven Hammond, both of whom are entirely deserving of these Grants of Executive Clemency,” the statement read.
The Trump White House took aim at the Obama administration as well, adding that it filed an “overzealous appeal” that led to the two men’s five-year prison sentence: “This was unjust.”
These clowns destroyed public property. Their sentence wasn’t “unjust.” Their arrest then prompted the standoff in the Steens Mountain area of eastern Oregon at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Yep, the “law and order” president keeps demonstrating his belief in the “rule of law.” Such as when he pardoned former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio after he had been convicted of violating a federal court order requiring him to stop profiling Hispanics in some attempt to curb illegal immigration.
Arpaio hadn’t even been sentenced for the felony, but he got a pardon anyway. Then the vice president, Mike Pence, praised Arpaio for standing up for the “rule of law.”
The president doesn’t believe in “law and order.” He believes in appeasing his political base. That’s what he did with this latest pardon.
Disgraceful.