The Gift that Keeps Giving? If Elected to U.S. Senate, Sheriff Joe Arpaio will to Revive Birther Movement, Challenge Barack Obama’s Presidency
NPR reports that Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County (Arizona) sheriff who is running for U.S. Senate in Arizona, says that once elected, he will renew his quest to demonstrate that former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fake. Arpaio is famous for his controversial stance on immigration (including a judicial finding that his sheriff’s office had engaged in a pattern and practice of violating the rights of Latina/os, U.S. citizens as well as immigrants), and for pushing the debunked claim that Obama was not born in the United States. He was convicted last year of criminal contempt after repeatedly violating federal district judge’s orders in a civil rights action challenging the Arapio office’s discriminatory immigration enforcement measures. Less than a month after being convicted, President Trump pardoned Arpaio.
In response to the conspiracy theories, the White House released copies of the President Obama’s long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, and posted an image of it to the White House website reaffirming that he was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii.
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