On Friday President Trump pardoned the controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio which cleared him of this impending jail time for contempt of court when he refused to stop detaining suspected illegal aliens.
Now that he’s in the clear, he just dropped a bomb on the left with hints that he may seek a seat in the U.S. Senate.
Senator Jeff Flake is the junior member behind John McCain in Arizona’s Senate delegation.
Like McCain, he’s been rather soft on illegal immigration, and that fact has earned his a primary challenger.
Sheriff Joe could become the third candidate in that race which could get competitive very quickly.
And with President Trump picking favorites in GOP primary races and with his not-so-cozy relationship with Republican Senators, we’ll give you one guess who he’d endorse in that match-up.
We’ll keep an eye on this one.
Here’s more from Redstate…
Former Maricopa County (Ariz.) sheriff and recently-pardoned Joe Arpaio is feeling a bit frisky, after skirting sentencing for contempt of court, thanks to an intervention by President Trump.
Since there’s not enough crazy challenging for seats held by Arizona’s sitting senators, Arpaio may just throw his hat in the race to challenge Senator Jeff Flake.
“I could run for mayor, I could run for legislator, I could run for Senate,” Arpaio said Monday. One particular race, however, is likely to gain significant attention: the GOP primary next year facing Flake, R-Ariz., a forceful Trump critic.
“I’m sure getting a lot of people around the state asking me” to challenge Flake, said Arpaio, who served 24 years as sheriff before losing reelection in 2016. “All I’m saying is the door is open and we’ll see what happens. I’ve got support. I know what support I have.”
Arpaio said he swore off another candidacy in January, when he left office, but that “with what I’ve seen happening in recent months, especially what’s happening with our president, I said, ‘Hey, why not?’”
“Why do you say ‘wow’?” he admonished, adding: “They just say Sheriff Joe Arpaio comma 85 years old. Why do they always say that?”
Arpaio said he believes “there is discrimination against senior citizens, bigtime” and that “I’m proud to be my age. I work 14 hours a day. If anyone thinks my age is going to hold me back, I’ve got news for them.”
“The bottom line is there’s no way I’m going to go fishing. I have no hobbies,” he said, declining to say how likely he is to seek office.
