CHRIS CUOMO (HOST): You’re kind of reintroducing yourself to the voters there. Is there any regret that you hold in your heart, for the conditions that people were kept in? The nature of immigration enforcement? The birtherism claims about President Obama? Things that are black marks on your record, do you have any regret, do you have any change on any of those?
JOE ARPAIO: Well, you know, Frank Sinatra says in “My Way,” “Regrets, I’ve had a few, too few to mention.” I would repeat that to you, but no, I have no regrets. We did the right thing, my people did the right thing. We were very successful throughout my 24-year tenure, the longest-serving sheriff in the history of Maricopa County. No, I don’t have regrets. A few mistakes, yes. Everybody makes mistakes when you have a –
CUOMO: Was the birtherism a mistake?
ARPAIO: Oh, now you’re bringing that up.
CUOMO: Well, why wouldn’t I?
ARPAIO: Well, I’m gonna tell you something.
CUOMO: Do you think it doesn’t matter? You want to be a U.S. Senator and you were part of a campaign to delegitimize a president of the United States? Matters, no?
ARPAIO: No. No, I started this because of a fake document, a government document. I didn’t care where the president came from. I didn’t care at all. And we have the evidence, nobody will talk about it, nobody will look at it, and anytime you want to come down, or anybody, we’ll be glad to show you the evidence. And by the way, you’re going to hear more about this fake, phony birth certificate –
CUOMO: So, you think President Obama’s birth certificate is a phony?
ARPAIO: No doubt about it. No doubt about it, we have the evidence. I’m not going to go into all the details. Yeah, it’s a phony document.
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