Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio says he got tricked into an interview with British comic and satirist Sacha Baron Cohen — swallowing a pitch he was a famous comedian from Finland, Breitbart News reported.
Arpaio is just one of a number of high-profile figures — including Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney — who have gotten pranked by Cohen for a new Showtime series "Who Is America?"
Arpaio, who has running for a Senate seat in Arizona, told Breitbart that during the interview he became "very uncomfortable" with some of the sexually charged words Cohen's character allegedly used, including "blowjob," "hand job," and "golden shower."
The former sheriff told Breitbart he was approached by two purported producers last fall who told him the show had selected him as one of the 20 "most popular" people in America.
He said he was told he had be interviewed by a famous Finnish comedian whom they suggested was a supporter of President Donald Trump, and it would be filmed live for an audience of two million viewers, Breitbart reported.
At the interview, questions he was asked involved immigration, guns, Trump playing golf, and running jails in Finland and the United States, Arpaio told Breitbart.
"I felt uncomfortable with some of the words they were using, but I had to live through it," he said. "I am not the type of guy who gets up and walks out. I never walked out in thousands of interviews. I just take it."
"I was kind of shocked," Arpaio said of the off-color language. "But I figured this is Finland, and this is a famous comedian."
"I was very careful in responding to controversial issues. Profiling. Illegal immigration. They were hitting me with all of that," he added.
"Something told me I had better document this," Arpaio told the outlet. "So, I typed those notes real fast."
Arpaio shared his notes with Breitbart, the news outlet reported.
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