One of Fox’s favorite law-breaking racists, former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, has announced he’s running for the U.S. Senate in Arizona. There’s a real question as to whether he’s a serious candidate or just doing it to raise money. But there wasn’t a discouraging word when Arpaio visited Fox & Friends to kick off his campaign this morning.
As David Nir wrote on Daily Kos, the 85-year old Arpaio sent out a fundraising email calling himself “a retired public servant living on a retired public servant’s salary.” Arpaio’s bank account may indeed be “looking a bit slimmer after his long fight against criminal contempt of court charges,” Nir noted, for refusing to respect civil rights. (He was pardoned by Donald Trump.)
Perhaps even Steve Doocy had questions about Arpaio’s candidacy. Doocy’s first question in the interview was “At 85, why do you want to do this?’
“I’m doing it for the people of Arizona, for our country and to support our great president,” Arpaio replied.
However, there’s reason to think the people of Arizona may very well say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Arpaio was trounced in his 2016 re-election bid even as Trump carried the county. It didn’t help that his Maricopa County constituents had to fork over $141 million in legal costs “over his contentious immigration policies, deaths of inmates in his jails and a child sex abuse case botched by his agency,” as RealClear Politics reported. 60% of Americans disapproved of Arpaio’s pardon.
Of course, none of that messiness was mentioned by Doocy. His next “question” was more of an invitation for a sales pitch: “With your long career as a sheriff, what part of that experience would be helpful in the U.S. Senate?”
Arpaio responded by saying it was his law-enforcement experience with drugs and immigration. But then, giving credence to the theory that his candidacy is really about fundraising, Arpaio interrupted his sales pitch to say his work “got me in trouble” with the Obama administration. “It took ‘em eight years to get me on a contempt misdemeanor so I’ll be talking more about that in the future,” Arpaio added.
Doocy’s next question: “Do you think you would be using that experience, it would be helpful to help drain the swamp because ultimately – during the commercial, you said that Donald Trump was a heroic figure to you and he wants to drain the swamp. If you were in the Senate, would you do that as well?”
Arpaio promised he'd "have a lot of fun" helping to drain the swamp.
After Doocy gave Arpaio an opening, which he took, to attack current (and retiring) Sen. Jeff Flake, Doocy closed the interview by saying enthusiastically, “Well, I tell you what: nobody’s got better name recognition down in Arizona than Senator Joe Arpaio.”
Yes, Doocy inadvertently spoke of Arpaio as though he were already a member of the U.S. Senate.
Watch the Freudian slip below, from the January 10, 2018 Fox & Friends.