Report: Joe Arpaio Gave Multiple Interviews To Anti-Semitic Publication

on July 18, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio.
CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 19: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is surrounded by protesters and members of the media at the the site of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in downtown Cleveland on the second day of... CLEVELAND, OH - JULY 19: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is surrounded by protesters and members of the media at the the site of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in downtown Cleveland on the second day of the convention on July 19, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. Many people have stayed away from downtown due to road closures and the fear of violence. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Cleveland, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Republican National Convention kicked off on July 18. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Arizona Republican Senate candidate and former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio gave at least five interviews since 2014 to the anti-Semitic outlet American Free Press, the Arizona Republic reported Wednesday evening.

On Jan. 30, AFP published a story on Arpaio’s Senate campaign that featured an interview he gave to reporter Mark Anderson. Arpaio praised Anderson’s work.

“He’s written some good stories, especially on my situation,” Arpaio told the Arizona Republic of an AFP reporter who published a story Wednesday on Arpaio’s Senate campaign. “I think he wrote one a little while back that was very honest. I can’t say that for other publications.”

The reporter, Mark Anderson, has written approvingly of David Duke and promoted conspiracy theories, Media Matters noted.

Arpaio separately told the Arizona Republic that he couldn’t “believe another news outlet is criticizing a newspaper.”

“I talk to all media, so what am I supposed to do? Investigate every media outlet to see what stories they write?” Arpaio said. “I don’t do that. You know that, I talk to all reporters, all publications.”

Willis Carto, the late founder of AFP, was a Holocaust denier who blamed the Sept. 11 attacks on Israel. The Southern Poverty Law Center called him “one of the most active and influential white nationalists of the past century.” AFP has published posts like “Jewish Fingerprints All Over 9-11,” as the Arizona Republic noted, as well as pieces about “Jewish congressional traitors” and the “international Jewish lobby.”

In 2016, Arpaio lost his bid to serve a seventh term as sheriff of Maricopa County, a role in which he had been criticized for years over cruel conditions in his facilities. He once described an outdoor jail dubbed “Tent City” as a “concentration camp.” In August 2017, he received a presidential pardon a month after he was convicted of defying a court order that he stop profiling Latino motorists.

Arpaio claimed to the Republic that he hadn’t read AFP in print and doesn’t have a computer to read it online.

“If I turned down everybody that writes stories I didn’t agree with, I probably wouldn’t be talking to anybody,” Arpaio told the publication. “I can’t believe this, how one journalist’s organization would criticize another one when we have free speech in this country.”

Arpaio claimed Thursday that he was “unaware” of AFP’s viewpoint, but in 2014 the Phoenix New Times asked the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office about the publication after Arpaio gave AFP an interview.

“The Sheriff does hundreds of interviews with different people and doesn’t do background checks on them before he does them,” a spokesperson for MCSO told the New Times. “The topic of this interview was immigration, I’m sure you have it.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for jeloso jeloso says:

    This is shocking. I am shocked.

  2. Avatar for j.dave j.dave says:

    “The Sheriff does hundreds of interviews with different people and doesn’t do background checks on them before he does them.”

    So the way to avoid being targeted for persecution by Sheriff Joe was to ask him for an interview?

  3. Avatar for erik_t erik_t says:

    I mean, of course he did.

  4. That’s just a preview of his legislating strategy: “The Senator votes for whatever bills are put in front of him. Is he supposed to look into the effects of every one?”

  5. I don’t remember Are-a-payaso doing too many interviews with Phoenix New Times. Of course, that could be because he had to pay the co-founders $3.75 million for falsely arresting them in 2007. Or more precisely, Maricopa County had to pay*.

    *Just a drop in the bucket compared to the $70 million-plus the county has paid to date.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

32 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for paulw Avatar for ajoguy Avatar for caterpillar Avatar for old_curmudgeon Avatar for bojimbo26 Avatar for sandyh Avatar for progress Avatar for sickneffintired Avatar for jeloso Avatar for mrf Avatar for darrtown Avatar for jinnj Avatar for jonney_5 Avatar for clauscph Avatar for boisdevache Avatar for 1american Avatar for tiowally Avatar for j.dave Avatar for khyber900 Avatar for coimmigrant Avatar for drtv Avatar for ohcomeonnow Avatar for thecommodore

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: