Apparently, actor-turned-fake-lawman Steven Seagal is thinking about running for governor of Arizona. During an interview with ABC 15, Seagal promoted his reality TV show–shot in collaboration with none other than Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio–and talked about a potential future in politics. As Seagal said:
Joe Arpaio and I were talking about me running for governor of Arizona. I would remotely consider it, but I have a lot of other responsibilities that may be more important to address.
When asked about the issues that he considered important, Seagal channeled his buddy Arpaio, and turned to immigration:
I think our biggest problem is the open border. I think this is a tremendous oversight by our current administration. As Ronald Reagan once said, if we don’t have security on our borders, we don’t have a country.
A Governor Seagal would be a scary prospect for Arizona, since the actor seems to share Sheriff Arpaio’s predilection for incredibly punitive immigration enforcement practices (for which Arpaio has been ordered to curtail, after a 2013 federal ruling subjected his department to an independent monitor). Famously, Seagal joined Arpaio during a 2011 immigration raid that brought a tank and a bomb robot into a quiet immigrant neighborhood and resulted in a single misdemeanor arrest. More than 100 chickens were euthanized and at least one puppy was killed, leading to lawsuits against Seagal and Arpaio. It’s unclear whether this overkill raid and its aftermath have made it onto the show that Seagal is now promoting.
