Trump's political godfather
Joe Arpaio, America's most controversial sheriff, talks to 'Off Message' about what he taught Donald Trump about politics.
06/20/16 05:15 AM EDT
PHOENIX — Joe Arpaio was standing in his top-floor office looking down on a summer cityscape baked semolina-loaf brown waiting for Donald Trump to call, or even email, a “Happy Birthday” message.
“Did he get in touch?” the 84-year-old Maricopa County sheriff asked his assistant, who replied, “no,” but a Trump aide had sent a really sweet email. A few days later, at a rally in the city in a 109-degree Saturday, Arpaio introduced a mellower-than-usual Trump who, in turn, delivered his requisite "I love Sheriff Joe!"
It is cosmic coincidence that the fiery Arpaio, the stocky Italian populist prototype for the burlier Scotch-German GOP nominee, was born on the very same day, June 14 — but 14 years earlier, two states away in Massachusetts, and far poorer than silver-spooned baby Donald in Queens.
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