CNN’s Dana Bash: Trump ‘Abhorrent’ for Saying Arpaio Pardon Announcement Came During High Ratings Due to Hurricane Harvey

Monday on CNN’s “Situation Room,” network political correspondent Dana Bash attacked President Donald Trump for saying today during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö that the announcement of the pardon of former Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joe Arpaio came in the middle of Hurricane Harvey, when “ratings would be far higher than they would be normally,” was “abhorrent.”

Bash said, “I don’t think it was tongue in cheek, I really don’t. This is a person who understands ratings. He came from reality TV. He’s kind of obsessed with ratings because ratings equals approval, equals all the things that we know that this president holds near and dear to him. And he had just come from a rally where the president was just talking about it, in Jeff’s report —where he got a lot of praise for it. But he was preaching to the choir there. These were the people who were kind of keeping Joe Arpaio afloat as kind of an iconic figure in that community, whereas in most other communities, many other communities, he was vilified and even found to be doing things that are absolutely illegal.”

She added, “Even if he was tongue in cheek, which I don’t think he was, the notion that the president of the United States announced something because ratings were high, where people were fleeing their homes, under water, and some people losing their lives, is abhorrent.”

(h/t Grabien)

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