PHOENIX — Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio admits that he made a “bad mistake” by allowing himself to be interviewed by Sacha Baron Cohen as part of an undercover television show.
Arpaio, who is running for the Republican nomination to replace Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said that he “couldn’t understand” Cohen, who played a Finnish “unboxing” celebrity named OMGWhizzBoyOMG. The segment aired on Sunday as part of the new Showtime program “Who is America?”
Arpaio says he got particularly confused when Cohen began discussing various “jobs,” President Trump, and golden showers.
“Quite frankly, I made a bad mistake security-wise,” Arpaio said in an interview Thursday night after a town hall, noting that the chat with the comedian took place in August of 2017. “They said, ‘we’re doing a feature for Showtime — the top 20 people in the United States.’ It looked pretty nice [that] I made the top people.”
“They take me to a warehouse type-thing and they had a couple of security guys. I’m by myself in a warehouse, and I was a little suspicious. They didn’t have a greenroom. It was just a warehouse.”
“They had a big-screen TV. He’s from Finland, famous guy,” Arpaio said, adding that on the screen it appeared to show how many people were tuning in, reaching up to 2 million. “I said ‘This guy has to be a famous guy in Finland.’”
The former Maricopa County sheriff said the two talked for an hour in total, including a lot about illegal immigration.
“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].”
“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 Cohen’s asking him if he would take a blowjob from the president. “I don’t know where that came from.”
During the initial interview, Arpaio appeared to tell Cohen that he would accept a “blowjob” from the president. He also said that “it wouldn’t surprise me” if Trump had a golden shower.
Arpaio then issued a challenge to the “Borat” star.
“Get the guts, get out of your undercover role, come and interview me in English, of course, so I can understand him so we can go man-to-man. You can ask me anything you want. I’ll be glad to deal with it,” Arpaio said. “He won’t have the guts to do that. Maybe he will, I don’t know.”
The former sheriff, 86, was voted out of office in 2016 and received a pardon from Trump last year, allowing him to avoid jail time for after he was convicted of criminal contempt due to his hard-line tactics going after illegal immigrants. He is currently polling third behind Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., and GOP state Sen. Kelli Ward less than three weeks until the Aug. 28 primary.
