Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio celebrated the end of actor Sacha Baron Cohen’s controversial show, “Who is America?” calling it “great” news.
“Will not forget his degrading, low life interview of me, which played numerous times during my US Senate campaign. Wonder if he has guts to interview me again man to man in English, if he can get away from his court hearings,” Arpaio tweeted Friday.
Great! Sacha Baron Cohen Showtime CBS show cancelled. Will not forget his degrading, low life interview of me, which played numerous times during my US Senate campaign. Wonder if he has guts to interview me again man to man in English, if he can get away from his court hearings.
— Sheriff Joe Arpaio (@RealSheriffJoe) December 21, 2018
Baron Cohen told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this week that his Showtime show would not be returning for a second season.
“I will never be able to get a politician to bare his buttocks while screaming ‘God bless America!’ and screaming the N-word,” he said.
The series featured Cohen wearing disguises and interviewing political types, often getting them to say absurd things on camera.
In a segment with Arpaio, Baron Cohen asked the former sheriff about sexual activities. Arpaio later said he did not understand what the actor, who was undercover as a Finnish celebrity, was saying.
“So he’s talking and I couldn’t understand him. He’s talking about golden showers. I thought he was talking about — the president has gold [in his shower],” Arpaio said.
“And then handjob,” Arpaio continued. “What was that? He was talking about illegals coming over working with their hands on their job.”
“Then the other thing — the only thing I got was that he would offer me a job. I didn’t hear that little thing before that,” Arpaio said, referring to Cohen asking him if he would take a blowjob from the president. “I don’t know where that came from.”
“Golden showers” is a reference to an allegation in the infamous Steele dossier, compiled by a former British spy in an effort to discredit then-candidate Trump, about Trump’s rumored viewing of Russian prostitutes performing a sex act involving urine.
Baron Cohen is nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the series.
Arpaio ran unsuccessfully in the Republican Senate primary in Arizona earlier this year.
President Trump pardoned Arpaio in August 2017, sparing the former Arizona sheriff from a jail sentence after he was convicted of criminal contempt for ignoring a court order that said he could not detain immigrants only because they lacked legal status. Arpaio denied doing so intentionally, but a judge rejected his argument.
