Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said over the weekend that if elected to the Senate, he would continue to raise the issue of whether former President Barack Obama was born in the United States.
The candidate for the Republican senatorial nomination in Arizona said at the Western Conservative Conference in Phoenix that he would avoid talking about his “birther” theories for now, but would bring the issue back up in full force should he win.
“I don’t talk about it anymore, until I become a U.S. senator. … So I’m kind of dropping that right now,” he told a group gathered at the conference. “But I’m going to tell you something: 100 percent we proved that’s a fake document. One hundred.”
Arpaio campaigned with President Trump and was later pardoned by him. Arpaio had been convicted of contempt of court.
Trump perpetuated birther conspiracy theories that Obama’s birth certificate is fake and he was not born in the U.S., as did Arpaio.
However, Trump publicly said after winning the Republican nomination that he believes Obama is a U.S. citizen.
