Draft-dodging pinhead Donald Trump just can’t quit Arizona politics. Earlier this week he floated the idea of pardoning Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was recently convicted of criminal contempt of court for acting like he’s above the law—taking a page from Trump’s playbook. Every time the urine-headed puffball spoke in central Arizona during the campaign, his political Godfather Joe Arpaio was right beside him, Birther Brothers in arms.
Arpaio, says Trump, is a “great American patriot” who “doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.” Trump never asked inmates who died in Arpaio’s jails, or innocent people hauled off the streets, if they “deserve to be treated this way.”
Even though Arizona Congressmen Raul Grijalva, Rueben Gallego and Tom O’Halleran have urged Trump not to pardon Sheriff Arpaio, I don’t doubt the popular-vote loser will set the old coot free, even though, in addition to the recent guilty verdict, Arpaio is also a convicted felon (racial profiling), a thug who falsely arrested journalists, a con-man who ran an illegal campaign scheme, and an expensive crappy lawman to boot.
So Trump is holding a rally in Phoenix on Tuesday at which we can expect to see Sheriff Arpaio in his usual capacity—introducing a fellow birther and bigot while the swastikas wave. Trump will rev up the crowd with stories about brown people jumping the border to rape your mother, steal your job and take advantage of free healthcare. Then they will vote (illegally, millions of them) for Democrats.
Yesterday, Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva sent a YouTube message explaining why he’ll be in Phoenix on Tuesday to protest Trump’s appearance (the whole 6-minute YouTube talk is worth a listen). Rep. Grijalva asked Trump to stay away, as did Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. He won’t, of course, and he’ll pardon Arpaio, of course. If his performance at Trump Tower this week wasn’t a loud enough message to white supremacists, pardoning the nation’s No. 1 anti-immigrant elected racist should should be a pretty clear signal to even the dimmest hitlerite.
But wait, there’s more! No states Republican senators have given Trump more guff than Arizona’s John McCain and Jeff Flake. Neither endorsed Trump during the GOP primary and both have continued to speak critically of him. Not-hero John McCain famously tanked the Obamacare repeal and Flake’s been on the talk shows this week promoting his new book, which does not say nice things about President Trump.
The far-right in Arizona has always had a problem with McCain, and every six years he’s primaried by a looney who gets that equally looney 30 percent of the GOP but little more. In 2016, former Arizona legislator Dr. Kelli Ward, a hard-right killer of all things good who feels right at home on Alex Jones’s radio sewer, opposed McCain in what the national press called one of the dirtiest races in the country. Ward adopted nearly every rightwing conspiracy theory, visited criminal rancher Cliven Bundy to help him face off against Big Government, and sidled up to nutballs like the Oathkeepers, whose founder said McCain should be “hung by the neck until dead.”
As predicted, Ward lost that 2016 primary big, but before the ink was even dry on that morning’s newspaper, she announced that she’ll take on the vulnerable Sen. Flake in his 2018 contest. Then Sen. McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer, and the oh so caring Dr. Ward said the ailing McCain should just go home, and Gov. Ducey should give her the Senate seat. That didn’t go over well, especially with John McCain, who can’t stand the craven opportunist.
So Kelli Ward’s default race is against Jeff Flake. The usual far-right nutcases signed on, but this time Ward’s also got backing from Robert Mercer and other deep-pocketed righties. This morning, then, the nation’s Bigot-in-Chief, Donald Trump, also tweeted his support:
Sen. Flake is all-caps “WEAK on borders” because he once dared to speak of immigration “reform” and because he knows Trump’s expensive, irresponsible and ecological nightmare of a border wall will solve nothing (most immigrants do not cross the desert but enter through airports and border crossings). The Mormon Flake, whose family has been in Arizona politics for generations, is one of a handful of Republican officials who’ve spoken critically of Trump’s recent both-sides-do-it nazi speech, tweeting “We can't accept excuses for white supremacy & acts of domestic terrorism. We must condemn. Period.”
One thing’s clear: Donald Trump does not take kindly to criticism and he adores anyone who kisses his tush, which Kelli Ward did early this morning:
Yup, we’re “excited” all right. It should be quite a scene Tuesday night: Trump, Arpaio and Ward. I don’t know if any single stage can hold that much bigotry.