NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s plans to rally supporters in Phoenix next week (all times local):
4:30 p.m.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton says he’s hoping President Donald Trump will delay his plans to rally supporters in Phoenix next week.
Trump’s campaign announced the Aug. 22 event on Wednesday — a day after the president blamed “both sides” for weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators.
In a statement, Stanton says he’s disappointed that Trump has chosen to hold a campaign rally “as the nation is still healing from the tragic events in Charlottesville.”
The mayor adds that if Trump is coming to Phoenix to announce a pardon for former metro Phoenix sheriff Joe Arpaio (ahr-PY’-oh), “then it will be clear that his true intent is to enflame emotions and further divide the nation.”
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6:04 a.m.
President Donald Trump plans to rally supporters in Phoenix next week.
Trump’s campaign announced the event Wednesday — a day after the president blamed “both sides” for weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators.
The campaign says the Aug. 22 rally will take place at the Phoenix Convention Center.
The president has been holding campaign-style events in Trump-friendly areas since he took office. Next week’s rally will be Trump’s first in the West.
Trump told Fox News in an interview this week that he may pardon Joe Arpaio (ahr-PY’-oh), the former Phoenix-area sheriff who recently was convicted in federal court.
A federal judge ruled in 2013 that Arpaio’s officers had racially profiled Latinos. Critics say a pardon would amount to an endorsement of racism.
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