Audio By Carbonatix
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio apparently forgot that he’s a politician during an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 this afternoon, right before a brief “oh shit” moment when he realized that, well, he is a politician.
Arpaio is a media whore and seems to like seeing his name in print even if it’s to point out how dumb he looked during a television interview. That’s what makes publishing his name so distressing. But he’s also a raving lunatic, so it’s hard to simply ignore him.
This is one of those instances we just couldn’t ignore.
Check out the footage after the jump.
Arpaio went on the show to discuss the federal government’s pledge of
$600 million to tighten border security with Democratic strategist Paul
Begala.
America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” pimped the appearance on Twitter yesterday, “tweeting” “I
will be on CNN’s Anderson Cooper tonight squaring off w/ ex-Clinton
aide about Federal response to the border. Should be good.”
And it was.
Joe showed up with his charming smugness and miserable attitude and Begala couldn’t help but laugh.
At the end of the interview, Joe had his meltdown when Begala suggested he uses immigration as a tool to get himself elected.
Here’s how it played out:
Begala:
“When you have politicians who can simply just scream and yell like
this, and get re-elected, god bless you, sheriff. I mean, I understand
if politicians don’t want to honestly address the problem if they’re
profiting politically by just hootin’ and hollarin’.”
Arpaio: “Well, I’m not a politician, I’m a law enforcement guy — I lock everybody up.”
Begala: “And how do you get that job, sir?”
Arpaio: (pause, combined with classic “who farted” face) “I was elected to do the job.”
Then Arpaio went his typical tirade about how he’s glad he’s elected to the job, otherwise he’d be fired.
It’s
pretty great — check it out below. Do yourself a favor and skip to
4:20 on the video, though. The sheriff’s smugness prior to the outburst
is infectious.
