Arizona Public Radio | Your Source for NPR News
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Governor Brewer Distances Herself from Arpaio and Birthers

Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona speaking at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit in Phoenix, Arizona, 25 February 2011.
Gage Skidmore
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona speaking at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit in Phoenix, Arizona, 25 February 2011.

Governor Jan Brewer said today she's not buying the arguments by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that there are questions about whether President Obama was born in this country. 

The sheriff concluded last week that a forensic examination proves that an electronic copy of the president's birth certificate offered by the White House is not authentic. And he said Obama's selective service registration card also appears to be forged. Arpaio said that, coupled with other information, suggests Obama was not, in fact, born in Hawaii as claimed. Brewer said she's not buying it.

"I have every reason to believe that his birth certificate is valid in the state of Hawaii," she said. "I don't have any other information other than what I've seen in the newspapers and speaking with the prior governor of Hawaii that assured me that everything was in proper order and they stand by their records."

Arpaio said Brewer is entitled to her opinion -- and that his opinion is backed by facts.

Nor was he impressed that Brewer had been reassured by her Hawaii counterpart.

"So she talked the the governor, so what, of Hawaii," said Sheriff Arpaio. "I mean, what does that mean? You've got to go back and see all the conflicts. So she talked to the governor? When did she talk to the governor of Hawaii? Oh, some time ago."

State lawmakers approved a bill last year to require presidential candidates to provide proof they were born in this country to get on the Arizona ballot. But Brewer vetoed it, calling the whole issue a distraction.