Arizona Republican Senate candidate Joe Arpaio was reticent to call Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a hero ahead of Tuesday’s GOP primaries in the state, but didn’t hesitate to lavish praise on President Trump.
“That’s hard for me to answer,” Arpaio, a former Maricopa County sheriff, said in an excerpt of an interview with MSNBC released Tuesday. “I never had a hero in my life until several months ago, when I woke up after 75 years and I found my hero. You know who that person is? Donald Trump.”
But Arpaio did describe McCain, a former naval aviator who spent more than five years as a Vietnam prisoner of war, as a “patriot.”
Me: “Do you think John McCain is a patriot?”
Arpaio: “Yes.”
Me: “A hero?”
Arpaio: “That’s hard for me to answer. Because I never had a hero in my life until several months ago when I woke up after 75 years and I found my hero. You know who that person is? Donald Trump.” https://t.co/OCjq8yhLYV— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) August 28, 2018
Arpaio was pardoned by Trump in August 2017 after a federal district court judge ruled that he was in criminal contempt of court for not following another judge’s order to cease traffic patrols targeting illegal immigrants.
Trump allies are being cautious with the words they use to memorialize McCain, who died Saturday at the age of 81, after Trump’s several public displays of animus toward the six-term senator.
Trump was widely criticized for his short tweet marking the death of McCain following a yearlong struggle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He also received backlash for not issuing a proclamation until Monday ordering flags to remain at half-staff until the 2008 Republican presidential nominee is buried Sunday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
Arpaio is trailing fellow Arizona GOP Senate candidates Rep. Martha McSally and state Sen. Kelli Ward in the polls as the trio compete to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., in the upper chamber.
