Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he had no idea he was agreeing in a televised interview that he’d consider having oral sex with President Trump.
And he thought, when talk to turned to “golden showers,” that he and Cohen were discussing a shower made of gold.
This is a problem.
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, pretending to be a Finnish YouTube star, found Arpaio to be like Play-Doh in his hands.
Arpaio, 86, is apparently easier to fool than a homeschooled third-grader.
And he’s running for U.S. Senate.
Fool him twice, shame on him, as the saying goes. He’s admitted to being “duped” before. In fact, what happened in the Cohen interview is just the latest piece of evidence from the past 10 years or so that Arpaio’s mental faculties have faded.
Forget the scandals for a moment — the jail deaths, the lack of sexual abuse investigations under his reign, the discrimination against Latinos.
Cohen just exposed for the rest of the country what many Arizonans already knew: If Arpaio was ever fit to be a senator, that time has passed.
Republican voters in Maricopa County turned on Arpaio in 2016, rejecting his bid for a seventh four-year term. But Arpaio isn’t satisfied staying out of the limelight — he’s one of several Arizona candidates this year who screwed up somehow and are trying to regain their reputations and give their self-esteem a boost.
Arpaio’s in third place for the Republican primary, polls show, behind Kelli Ward and Martha McSally, and all of them may be behind Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema for November’s general election. Despite the long-shot odds, Arpaio seems to be taking the race seriously. He’s raising money and recently plastered metro Phoenix with campaign signs.
Yet Arpaio can’t handle the complex, fast-paced world of being a senator, and is likely to be pushed around and manipulated if voters actually put him back in office.
The Cohen example is only the latest of his dotage. It sure is a doozy.
Trouble begins in the interview for Arpaio when Cohen gets him to debate gun control with a toy. Then he informs Arpaio that he’s been collecting guns “for the upcoming race war.”
Arpaio, clearly not on the ball, says nothing in response.
Cohen soon asks Arpaio if he thinks Trump has had a golden shower.
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Arpaio answers.
“I would love to have a golden shower,” Cohen tells him. “Do you think there’s any way you could get President Trump to give me a golden shower?”
“In Finland?” Arpaio answers, oddly. He then adds that Trump would like the things Cohen is saying.
