Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Apairo is both speaking at and providing the security for Trump’s Phoenix-area rally Saturday.
The Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio has a national profile for aggressively cracking down on undocumented immigrants and for the administering a jail known as “Tent City.” Arpaio also endorsed Trump for president in January.
“Here I’m gonna be kinda wearing two hats — in charge of the security there in the town and also participating, I would imagine, with Trump in the rally, so it makes it interesting,” Arpaio told Politico.
“It is going to be a lot of fun taking care of business there,” Arpaio said.
Arpaio said he thinks Trump, who has seen his rallies frequently interrupted by protesters, has gotten off easy with demonstrators.
“I’ve had demonstrations against me constantly,” he said. “He hasn’t had that many demonstrators compared to me.”
The sheriff recently got into a row with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and his wife, Jane Sanders.
After Jane Sanders toured Tent City, Bernie Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president, called the conditions in the prison “inhumane.”
Sanders has made criminal justice reform a centerpiece of his campaign. Jane Sanders told Arpaio that she thinks there a too many people in jail or prison in the United States.
“I don’t think that there’s enough, because when you look at all the crime going on,” Arpaio said, before shaking his head, according to the Arizona Republic.
