As Media Matters noted, a spokesperson for Paul Babeu, the Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona and frequent Fox News guest, issued an apology for allowing Babeu to appear on the white nationalist radio program Political Cesspool. The spokesperson added that he has been “inundated with media requests” and he “weeded out most all requests from any outlets or groups that have any connection with possible hate groups. Unfortunately last week it appears that I may have let one such interview take place.”
The Political Cesspool isn't the only fringe program on which Babeu has recently appeared. On July 9, Babeu was a guest on The Alex Jones Show, a program considered the leading anti-government conspiracy theory program in the country, and hosted by the “founding father” of the movement that claims that 9-11 was an “inside job” by the government.
At one point during the program, while discussing the administration's policies toward Arizona and immigration, host Alex Jones asked Babeu if President Obama is committing “high treason,” to which Babeu replied, “It borderlines that. I'm not going to outright call it that. You know, he's still -- I'm still an officer in the Army, and as a sheriff, I'm hoping that we have a correction here this year”:
JONES: But specifically, I've got the definition here -- and in tough times and serious times, needs tough realities -- of high treason. And it's participating in a war against one's country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military's diplomats, or Secret Service, for a hostile foreign power. And I'm sorry, I don't know what else a federal lawsuit that's unconstitutional against Arizona, and a refusal, what he told Sen. Kyl in that meeting where he said, “I want it to be a crisis so we can pass immigration reform,” if that isn't high treason, I don't know what is. Sir, is this not treason?
BABEU: This is their plan. It borderlines that. I'm not going to outright call it that. You know, he's still -- I'm still an officer in the Army, and as a sheriff, I'm hoping that we have a correction here this year. Because the path we're going down in America is not the America that I fought for and I believe in. We're turning into -- we're running down, sprinting down the path to socialism. And it's extremely troubling.
What's even more concerning is the president and his men have attacked us, undermined the rule of law. The president has deliberately -- this is a man who's supposed to be a constitutional lawyer, he's very diabolical in his planning and plotting. He makes very careful statements to undermine police officers.
Alex Jones describes himself as on “the front lines of the growing global information war from ground zero to the occult playgrounds of the power-mad elite. Jones predicted the attacks on September 11th, 2001 and is considered one of the very first founding fathers of the 9-11 Truth Movement.” (Jones did not ask about or discuss 9-11 conspiracy theories with Babeu.)
The Anti-Defamation League wrote that “Jones may currently well be the most prominent conspiracy theorist in the United States, and has been responsible for spreading and popularizing a wide variety of conspiracy theories, the majority espousing some form of anti-government viewpoint.” The ADL added that Jones “reached prominence in the years after the 9/11 terror attacks, as he became one of the most energetic of the 'truthers,' the conspiracy theorists who believe that the 9/11 attacks were an 'inside job' by the U.S. government.” The ADL further wrote:
Jones' various programs, Web sites, and videos have become incredibly popular among anti-government activists and conspiracy theorists. He promotes a variety of conspiracy theories, and allows his guests to promote others, but Jones's own favorite conspiracies tend to converge on the following points:
There is a conspiracy by malevolent globalists to take over the world and institute a “New World Order” with high-tech slavery;
In the United States, conspiratorial figures such as “international bankers” and entities ranging from the Federal Reserve to the Council on Foreign Relations to the Bilderberg Group are engaged in a variety of strategies to take over (or extend their hold over) the government and to strip Americans of their rights, especially their rights to free speech and to own firearms;
Some sort of final conspiratorial takeover of America is imminent, including a declaration of martial law and the incarceration of American citizens in FEMA-run concentration camps.
On the program, Babeu additionally attacked Obama for planting “in people's heads that we're [law enforcement] the thugs” and said he would “not forgive” Obama. Babeu later said that Obama has been “undermining not just the rule of law, but literally an assault upon police officers across America.” Jones' website features a section for numerous conspiracy theories, which frequently involve the “police state” and “martial law”:
- Police State 4: The Rise Of FEMA. “Alex Jones conclusively proves the existence of a secret network of FEMA camps, now being expanded nationwide. The military industrial complex is transforming our once free nation into a giant prison camp.”
- Fall Of The Republic: The Presidency Of Barack H Obama. “Leaders are now declaring that world government has arrived and that the dollar will be replaced by a new global currency. President Obama has brazenly violated Article 1 Section 9 of the US Constitution by seating himself at the head of United Nations' Security Council, thus becoming the first US president to chair the world body. A scientific dictatorship is in its final stages of completion.”
- The Obama Deception. “The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery.”
- ENDGAME: Blueprint for Global Enslavement. “For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population.”
- Dark Secrets: Inside the Bohemian Grove, which “documented the first ever hidden camera incursion into the Grove and the bizzare pagan ritual, the Cremation of Care, practiced by its members, all men, including both Presidents Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, and Henry Kissenger to name but a few.”
- Martial Law 9/11: Rise Of The Police State: Weapon Of Mass Enlightenment. “How multitudes of New Yorkers and others are fully aware of the fact that 9/11 was an inside job and are now actively exposing the people behind it. ... Why the collapse of Building 7 is potentially the biggest smoking gun indicating government involvement in 9/11. Alex returns to the scene of the crime to physically dissect why the official story can be nothing else but a fraud.”