Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, not exactly known for his bipartisanship, thinks that fellow Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County is getting too political in his rhetoric in the wake of the mass shooting over the weekend that killed six people and gravely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).
“Sheriffs are elected, like I am, thank God. I’m sure if he was a police chief he’d probably be fired tomorrow. I’m not trying to defend him, but he’s the one that runs that sheriff’s office. I do not,” Arpaio said.
Dupnik has come under fire from conservatives because he decried the heated political atmosphere, called for more civility and said Arizona had “become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”
“I don’t want to keep talking about politics. I don’t think we should do so over this tragedy,” Arpaio said. “But I think this has gone into politics now. People are using this for their own political agenda.”
Arpaio also said that he thought there was a double standard about threats and heated rhetoric when used against conservatives.
“I have to say that I have been threatened constantly, threatened by elected officials, calling me Nazi, Hitler, every name in the book,” he told Newsmax. “Yet I haven’t heard anybody speak out in the Democrat administration saying that’s not right.”
Arpaio defended Sarah Palin, who has come under attack for publishing a map which featured gun sights aimed at the districts of 20 Democrats that an aide now claims were surveyor marks. Liberals did the same thing to him, he said.
“Why are they blaming her? They put me in [cross hairs]. They put me in KKK uniforms. They call me Hitler and everything else. They say I should be dead. They’ve got rewards out for me,” Arpaio said.
“So why isn’t anybody talking about this sheriff? I’m talking about the Democrats. They’re investigating me, the Justice Department, but why aren’t they concerned about this sheriff?” Arpaio asked.
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
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