Sheriff Joe Arpaio seemed bored today as he talked about a U.S. citizen caught with more than 50 pounds of meth.
"This is important right here," he said as he twiddled his thumbs and looked at the packages of meth, following up his statement with a long pause.
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This seems to be the start of a trend in Arpaio's media-spin department. Before recently, Arpaio played the immigration tough-guy, and seemed to apply the most blame possible to "illegal immigrants."
As we noted yesterday, it seems like Arpaio's taken a turn in his media tactics, after his extraordinarily politically correct press release about deputies finding men, not "illegals" or "illegal immigrants" in the desert, without any hint of the men being arrested on state smuggling charges. Deputies instead drove the men to a convenience store at their request.
Today, we checked out the live stream of Arpaio's press conference on this citizen being busted with 51 pounds of meth, and Arpaio looked to be about half asleep, as he said the meth was likely smuggled in from Mexico.
"So . . . (pause) . . . the bottom line is . . . (pause) . . . Mexico . . . (pause) . . . they're innovative," he said.
He then invited reporters to get a closer look at the seized meth, as a deputy told Arpaio to warn the reporters not to touch the meth packages.
"Did I touch it?" Arpaio asked, as he looked at his hands, over and over.
Eventually, he mumbled, "Gotta wash my hands."
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