ARE THEY RUNNING SCARED?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 30, 2017) — “The Heat” Magazine has posted a ten-minute video of former Sheriff Joseph Arpaio’s remarks made on Friday night at a Fresno County Republican fundraiser with the caption, “Former County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Says He’s Continuing The Search For Barack Obama True Birth Certifcate.” [sic]
During the ten-minute video, however, Arpaio does not invoke nor respond to questions from those assembled about the five-year investigation he commissioned beginning in August 2011 which declared that the image posted at the White House website in April of that year is a “computer-generated forgery.”
At 3:44, someone possibly said the words “birth certificate,” but Arpaio responded to the prevailing question by naming two books he authored, “America’s Toughest Sheriff” and “Joe’s Law.”
Newsweek, which posted “The Heat’s” video, also reported that Arpaio spoke about the Obama “birth certificate” investigation. “He promised to restart his investigation into the veracity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate,” its article reported on Saturday under the title of “Joe Arpaio Revives Birtherism…”
“I’m going back home and fighting some battles in federal court next week,” Arpaio said in his closing remarks captured on the video, apparently referring to an October 4 hearing in which U.S. District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton will decide whether to vacate her conviction of Arpaio for misdemeanor criminal contempt of court or to allow it to stand on his record.
The hearing was prompted by President Donald Trump’s issuing of a pardon to Arpaio on August 25 following Bolton’s July 31 declaration of conviction, which Arpaio’s attorneys have said was done improperly by email to their offices rather than in court to allow their client the opportunity to learn the verdict directly and openly.
Farther down in the Newsweek article, reporter Alexander Nazaryan clarified that Arpaio spoke for 30 minutes to include remarks about the birth certificate investigation. Arpaio was quoted as having said, “I’m not done with it yet” and that the presenting of the image to the public more than six years ago is “the biggest coverup in the United States.”
Interestingly, those remarks were not presented in video format by Newsweek.
Nazaryan’s quoting of Arpaio’s comments on the matter are followed by a partial video of the December 15, 2016 press conference which Arpaio opened by stating that the 5+-year investigation was conducted in the same manner as any other criminal investigation his office would have launched.
Arpaio then introduced the investigator, former New Jersey detective Mike Zullo, who he said “gave up five years of his life” to carry out the probe which took him to Hawaii on two occasions; Washington, DC multiple times; and many points in between.
Nazaryan additionally reported that a reporter from Valley Public Radio had asked Arpaio a “birth certificate” question prior to the commencing of the Republican event. Nazaryan captured the exchange between the reporter and Arpaio as:
“Are you serious?” Hess asked, sounding both incredulous and pained. “I’m just curious if you’re actually, seriously continuing this well-debunked argument.” Hess added that Arpaio’s was “a wildly irresponsible claim. I can’t tell if you’re serious or not.”
“Of course I’m serious,” Arpaio countered. “The facts are there.”
When Zullo first reported at a March 1, 2012 press conference that the “long-form” birth certificate bearing Obama’s name was likely a “computer-generated forgery” based on a finding of probable cause, the media reported it but with virtually no television coverage. Rather than launch their own investigations, the media chose to ridicule the messengers and marginalize their message.
One reporter who wrote that Arpaio’s contention that the birth certificate is a forgery was proved inaccurate referred this writer to Snopes.com after we questioned the reporter as to his or her evidence to support that claim. “A simple Google search would have answered your question,” the reporter wrote in an email which supplied the following two links:
http://www.snopes.com/hawaii-official-no-obama-birth-certificate/
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/birthers/birthcertificate.asp
Arizona’s Channel 12 posted the video of Arpaio’s responses to Hess’s questioning, which became contentious.
“We put the nail in the coffin, just by chance, before I left office,” Arpaio told Hess.
“Stay tuned,” he ultimately told the reporter after a four-minute back-and-forth.
But it is such a nail-biting cliffhanger!
How much longer (beyond these past five years) will we have to “stay tuned” before Arpaio and Zullo publicly release their information? Another year? Another five years?
T F BOW stop biting your nails.
The Fresno Bee video of the press conference before his speech is where there were fireworks over the birth certificate. The reporter was right Arpaio has not released the evidence.