Self-Proclaimed "Toughest Sheriff" Running For Senate; Does Arpaio Still Back Birther Conspiracy About Obama?; Trump Previously Tweeted Support for Arpaio Rival
CUOMO: All right, the man calls himself America's toughest sheriff. Will he become America's toughest senator? 24 years ago, Republican Joe Arpaio was the top cop in Arizona's Maricopa County and became famous, someone say infamous for his harshness. Troubling set the facts, he ran an outdoor jail called Tent City, Arpaio himself described it as a concentration camp. Inmates lived year around, exposed to the scorching heat of Phoenix summers, near freezing chill in the winter. They wear pink underwear, they ate green call it bologna allegedly, but that was nothing. Under Arpaio, they were also chain gangs for men and women. Conditions that rights groups called inhumane, overcrowded and dangerous. Remember, this was a jail, not a maximum security prison. It resulted in multiple lawsuits and a lot of death, especially by suicide. So he was a huge fan of racial profiling. And when a judge finally order Arpaio to stop the practice, he refused as a matter of principle he said. And he was convicted of criminal contempt. That's when President Trump came to his rescue, before Arpaio serve any jail time, he got a pardon, it was the first for the president who supported Trump's campaign. He's now 85 years old and he's in the race for the seat of Senator Jeff Flake, the Trump nemesis who announced he won't be seeking re- election. And he joins us now to make the case to you. Sheriff Joe, thanks for joining us.</s>JOE ARPAIO, (R) ARIZONA SENATE CANDIDATE: Hey, Chris. I think it's been years since we last met that you interviewed me, if I recall.</s>CUOMO: That's true. You look the same. I look a lot older.</s>ARPAIO: Well, it's the Italian olive oil for me.</s>CUOMO: Well, I'm going to have to up the dose. Let me ask you something, Sheriff. You've had such a long run. You've had so much controversy here at the end. You've got your health, but you've got your age as well. Why take this on? Why not just take the pardon, you lost your last race for sheriff to a Democrat in an all-Republican county. Why do this?</s>ARPAIO: Well, first of all, I disagree with your opening remarks. I can -- I'm not going to spend time justifying the tent city and everything else you said. But the question is why am I doing this? Well I'll tell you. First of all, I'm a big supporter of the president from day one, July 2015. I endorsed him, I introduced him and, I said he would be the next president. I guess so was right on that. So I have a great respect for the president, and between you and I, I don't like what's going on with certain people going after him. He's done a great job. And I want to do something to help him and help the people of Arizona. So I had a long career, 60 years serving my country, 56 years in law enforcement. Joined the army when the Korean War started.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>ARPAIO: Was a cop in D.C. I can go on and on. But one thing people don't understand, I was regional director of Mexico City of the U.S., drug enforce and covered Latin America, was head of the DEA and --</s>CUOMO: No, I get the pedigree.</s>CUOMO: I get the pedigree Sheriff.</s>ARPAIO: Yes -- well I believe --</s>CUOMO: But you've been in the business a long time. You went out --</s>ARPAIO: OK.</s>CUOMO: -- in some ignominious circumstances, and now you're asking the people to give you another chance. I mean have you changed? Do you no longer believe in profiling Latinos and stopping them just because --</s>ARPAIO: Well.</s>CUOMO: -- of the color of their skin? Do you believe in no longer herding people together? Putting them in the bad conditions?</s>ARPAIO: That is wrong. That is wrong.</s>CUOMO: You're convicted.</s>ARPAIO: My guys do not raise (ph). Well, no convicted by a judge.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>ARPAIO: No jury, who was very biased. I'm not going to go into his history. One day it's going to come out very soon.</s>CUOMO: You were told to stop discriminatory practice and you refused Joe, and you got convicted --</s>ARPAIO: No, no, no, we had the authority to do it by the federal government. They swore in all my deputies to be immigration officers and we were doing our job in that period. Evidently, the judge did not agree with it even though the federal government laid the guidelines how we would do it. But that's one issue. Then he turns it over to another judge for a contempt to court.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>ARPAIO: Now that judge refused again me a jury trial. One day before -- one day before early voting Obama's Department of Justice hold their in Loretta Lynch, said they're going to charge me on a misdemeanor -- on misdemeanor, contempt the court, get the same time as barking dogs. And then during the election they charge me.</s>CUOMO: Why didn't you just stop stopping people because they were Mexican?</s>ARPAIO: We never stopped people because they were Mexican? We stopped people because they were committing a crime.</s>CUOMO: There was an established pattern of your pulling people over because they were Latino. That's how you got in court in the first place, Sheriff.</s>ARPAIO: No, no, that's what the judge --</s>CUOMO: That's what the prosecutor said. That's what the prosecutor said. They brought the case. This judge didn't just come knock on your door and tell you were guilty. There was a prosecution involved because of a pattern of conduct. Now either you believe in that kind of stuff and that's what you want to represent yourself as to the voters in Arizona, or you don't. Which is it?</s>ARPAIO: Well, I'm telling you, you're bringing that up, OK.</s>CUOMO: Yes, sir</s>ARPAIO: And I'm telling you again, we're not guilty of that contempt of court. And that's why the president realized that and gave me a pardon and I never asked for it. So we got a judge, is not going to go against the fellow judge and I contempt the court and everybody in the courtroom knew that I was not guilty.</s>CUOMO: Except the prosecutor and the judges.</s>ARPAIO: Well, right -- well what do you mean a prosecutor?</s>CUOMO: Somebody brought the case.</s>ARPAIO: No, no, no. And that everybody in that courtroom knew that -- I'm not going to say the fix was in, but it was pre-determined that I would be found guilty of a contempt of court. So we're appealing that and we'll see what happens.</s>CUOMO: Let me ask you something.</s>ARPAIO: You want to go on to something else?</s>CUOMO: Let's look at it in a different way. You're kind of reintroducing yourselves to the voters there. Is there regret that you hold in your heart for conditions the people were kept in? The nature of immigration enforcement? The birtherism claims about President Obama, things that are black marks on your record. Do you have regret? Do you have any change on any of those?</s>ARPAIO: Well, you know, Frank Sinatra says "My Way" regret, so I few</s>CUOMO: Was the birtherism a mistake?</s>ARPAIO: Oh, now you're bringing that up.</s>CUOMO: Why wouldn't I?</s>ARPAIO: I'm going to tell you s something.</s>CUOMO: Do you think it doesn't matter? You want to be a U.S. senator and you were part of a campaign to delegitimize a president of the United States? Matters, you know.</s>ARPAIO: No, I started this because of fake document -- a government document. I didn't care where the president came from. I didn't care at all. That we had the evidence, nobody will talk about it, nobody will look at it. And anytime you want to come down, or anybody we'll be glad to show you the evidence. And by the way you'll -- you're going to hear more about this fake --</s>CUOMO: Do you believe that President Obama's birth certificate is a phony?</s>ARPAIO: No doubt about it. No doubt about it. We had the evidence, I'm not going to go into all the details.</s>CUOMO: You know, even Donald Trump now says that --</s>ARPAIO: It's a phony document.</s>CUOMO: -- that he believes that the president was born in this country, right?</s>ARPAIO: He never said about a fake birth certificate, that's the only thing I was trying to prove.</s>CUOMO: Then he wouldn't be legitimately born in this country, Sheriff, it takes us to the same place, it doesn't matter whether you want to talk about a forge instrument or anything else that was fraudulent. Ether the man was born in this country or he wasn't. The good news is we know the answer, he was. But if you want to be a U.S. senator, don't you think that people should have confidence in your judgment on something as crucial as that?</s>ARPAIO: Well this was the goal I have for quite a while, and I didn't reelected by the way when all was going on. So --</s>ARPAIO: That was the last election, and I'm not going to get into the sorrows popping. Three million dollars with the Department of Justice announcing the day before voting. So the fix was in emanating from Obama and holder when they opened the investigation, 60 days after they took office, Chris. And eight years until they finally got me on a contempt of court. So evidently it took them eight years to get this sheriff.</s>CUOMO: Well.</s>ARPAIO: So -- but that's OK.</s>CUOMO: Let me ask you something. You say you want to help the president. He's already backed Dr. Ward who's running on the conservative line there as a Republican.</s>ARPAIO: He did not, he did not, he did not, he did not endorse her.</s>CUOMO: Well, he came out in support of her. But --</s>ARPAIO: Steve Bannon is the one that a endorsed her.</s>CUOMO: My question is this. If the president will say to you --</s>ARPAIO: Doesn't matter.</s>CUOMO: -- hey, do me a favor, get out of this race, we already have somebody that they want. I don't want this to be ugly. Would you do it?</s>ARPAIO: I don't think he'll ever say that. I don't think he'll ever say that.</s>CUOMO: Do you think he'll endorse you?</s>ARPAIO: So well I'm not going to -- I don't know. And, you know, what? I never asked for endorsement. Everybody want my endorsement, every time presidential elections come up, everyone calls me for their endorsement and governors and everything else. So I guess I'm doing something right.</s>CUOMO: Well we see soon enough if you enter the primary, the people will vote and we'll have a decision. And I appreciate you coming on this show.</s>ARPAIO: I never lost a Republican primary, so I'm not expecting to lose this one, Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right. We will see what happens. Joe Arpaio, thank you very much for coming on the show. Appreciate your openness to being tested.</s>ARPAIO: Thank you.</s>CUOMO: All right.</s>ARPAIO: Thank you.</s>CUOMO: Up next, we'll have the great debate, Navarro versus Schlapp. Toe-to-toe, what do they think about possibility of Senator Joe Arpaio, maybe I'll give them a pass on that.