Sheriff Paul Babeu of Pinal County, Arizona will be one of the witnesses testifying at today’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the “Adequacy and Enforcement of Our Nation’s Immigration Laws.” Yesterday we wrote about Babeu’s past with the undocumented lover he threatened, his connection to the John Tanton network, and his planned testimony on how he believes immigrant criminals are “heading to your neighborhoods.” And let’s not forget about the time he blurted out the itinerary of a group of migrant children, leading to anti-immigrant protests at the destination and Babeu being called “Sheriff Showboat.” But have you heard about the time he appeared on a white supremacist radio show?
Yup, move over Steve Scalise. In 2010, Babeu appeared on Political Cesspool, a radio show that claims:
We represent a philosophy that is pro-White. … We wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races.
(Political Cesspool seems to have removed that language from its current webpage, but you can view the page as it was when Babeu spoke on the show here or here.)
Here’s more from Media Matters about the show:
The Anti-Defamation League states that Political Cesspool regularly gives voices to “anti-Semites, white supremacists, and other right-wing extremists.” The Southern Poverty Law Center writes that the Political Cesspool is a “shamelessly white nationalist radio talk show” and host James Edwards “has probably done more than any of his contemporaries on the American radical right to publicly promote neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, raging anti-Semites and other extremists.” Political Cesspool has been streamed by Stormfront.org, which describes itself as a “community of White Nationalists.”
During Babeu’s actual segment, he told co-host Eddie Miller that Miller was a “great American” and invited the show to come to Pinal County “so you could tell all of your listeners that — truly, first hand, what’s going on.” Babeu also invited listeners interested in volunteering as a deputy to apply to join a “posse” program. Prior to Babeu appearing on the program, Miller said he’d never been as excited about a guest since he talked to former Klan leader David Duke.
All of which invites the question — why have Republican leaders invited an apparent white supremacist sympathizer to testify at an immigration hearing today?
