Joe Arpaio has given at least 5 interviews to an anti-Semitic publication

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Arpaio has given several interviews to a publication that traffics in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and on Wednesday declined an opportunity to distance himself from the extremist material.

Arpaio, the controversial former Maricopa County sheriff, said he was unfamiliar with other stories on the "American Free Press" website, such as an interview with the author of an anti-Semitic book that was headlined "Jewish Fingerprints All Over 9-11." But Arpaio declined to criticize it or other anti-Semitic content associated with the publication.

"I'm not going to criticize the news media like you," Arpaio told The Arizona Republic. "I can't believe another news outlet is criticizing a newspaper."

On Thursday, after his comments were first published on azcentral.com, Arpaio tweeted that he doesn't support anti-Semitism.

"It was brought to my attention I gave interview to publication that supports antisemitism;  I was unaware and don't support that view point," Arpaio tweeted.

CNN last week reported that Lou Barletta, a GOP Senate candidate in Pennsylvania, gave an interview to the "American Free Press" in October 2006. Since 2014, Arpaio has given at least five interviews to it.

This week, a new story about Arpaio's Senate run in Arizona appeared on the website, apparently based on a Jan. 21 interview. It was written by Mark Anderson, described as the "roving editor" of "American Free Press."

Arpaio said he has yet to read the latest story, but bets "it was a good interview." He acknowledged talking to the publication in the past.

"He's written some good stories, especially on my situation," Arpaio said of Anderson. "I think he wrote one a little while back that was very honest. I can't say that for other publications."

Arpaio, who lost his 2016 re-election bid for sheriff, was convicted of criminal contempt of court in connection with a federal civil-rights case. President Donald Trump pardoned him last year.

In its story about Barletta, CNN described Anderson as "a prominent Bilderberg conspiracy theorist who believes a secretive group of the world's most powerful leaders constitute a de facto one-world government that orchestrates world events."

Arpaio, who has been closely associated with the debunked conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama's birth certificate was a forgery, said he doesn't discriminate between news outlets and suggested there was no difference between the fringe "American Free Press" and other news organizations such as The Republic and Phoenix New Times.

"I talk to all media, so what am I supposed to do? Investigate every media outlet to see what stories they write?" Arpaio told The Republic. "I don't do that. You know that, I talk to all reporters, all publications."

In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League described the "American Free Press" as "an anti-Semitic and conspiracy-oriented newspaper pub­lished by longtime white suprema­cist Willis Carto." The Southern Poverty Law Center in 2010 dubbed the "American Free Press" an "anti-Semitic weekly."

Willis Carto, the "American Free Press" creator, in the 1950s founded the extreme-right Liberty Lobby and in 1978 started the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review.

Conservative National Review founder William F. Buckley once said Carto, who died in 2015, was representative of "the fever swamps of the crazed right." 

In 1995, then-freshman U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., faced some heat after he gave an interview to a shortwave radio show sponsored by Carto's Liberty Lobby.

The Anti-Defamation League said the program, "Radio Free America," spread anti-Semitic propaganda. 

Like Arpaio, Salmon said he was unfamiliar with the outlet's reputation.

''If they do pursue anti-Semitic policies, then that's wrong and that's evil,'' Salmon told The Republic at the time.

Arpaio said he has never read a print version of the "American Free Press" and doesn't have a computer to read it online. But the First Amendment allows outlets to publish controversial opinions, he said.

"If I turned down everybody that writes stories I didn't agree with, I probably wouldn't be talking to anybody," Arpaio said. "I can't believe this, how one journalist's organization would criticize another one when we have free speech in this country."

Arpaio of Fountain Hills is running in Arizona's Aug. 28 GOP primary against U.S. Rep. Martha McSally of Tucson and former state Sen. Kelli Ward of Lake Havasu City. Incumbent Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., is not seeking re-election.

Nowicki is The Arizona Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter, @dannowicki.

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