Arizona Republican State Representative John Kavanagh's statement

Arizona Republican State Representative John Kavanagh's sent AC360 a statement on the Arpaio roast recordings:

The jokes I made at the Sheriff Joe Arpaio Roast, at his invitation, were satirical comedy. The jokes were not directed at minority group members but at the target of the roast – Sheriff Arpaio. The jokes were jabs against the sheriff based upon allegations of his department’s engaging in racial profiling.

The Southern Poverty Law Center edited out selected portions of a much longer roast on many topics not related to racial profiling. The humor was typical of roasts and had I made the same jokes against Sheriff Arpaio at their annual dinner, I suspect that they would have been laughing as much as this audience laughed. Likewise, had these jokes been made on a TV comedy or variety show, there would also be no controversy.

I have never hesitated to appear on this show or other shows to discuss policy issues because that is part of my job.  But this is not a policy issue. This is a personal attack upon me, which appears to be politically motivated, no doubt due to my support of SB1070.