Here’s what Arizona AG candidate Abraham Hamadeh says about qualifications, other issues

PHOENIX – Despite his relatively young age, Republican Abraham Hamadeh says he has the experience necessary to be Arizona’s next attorney general.

“I’ll be the youngest attorney general since Bill Clinton, actually,” Hamadeh, 31, told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Gaydos and Chad Show last week. Clinton was 30 when he was elected as Arkansas’ attorney general in 1976.

Hamadeh earned his law degree from the University of Arizona and is a former prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and captain in the U. S. Army Reserve. He said he returned from a 14-month deployment to Saudi Arabia about a year ago.

Hamadeh discussed his qualifications and other issues during Friday’s interview. Here are some excerpts (listen to the full audio here or at the top of this story):

On his qualifications:

“What I tell folks is my prosecutorial experience being in the courtroom, dealing with some of these criminal cases and also being overseas as an intelligence officer negotiating a pretty complex relationship with the Saudi Arabian government has prepared me very well for this office.”

On why he’s running:

“This whole wave of defunding the police that the Democrats have been trying to do to us for two years is horrific, and we’re living with the consequences of that.

“So as attorney general, what I intend to do is uphold the laws and uphold the Constitution, which I’ve already sworn to defend as a United States Army officer, and that’s exactly what i’ll do as attorney general.”

On reports that he’s under investigation by the military:

“This is exactly what happens in campaigns. What the opposition does, they file these public complaints so they can try to use these tactics against us, but I’m very proud of my military service. Whatever type of investigation that has been going on or if it’s going on, I’m not aware of.”

On the indictment, which was later dropped, against his father in the 1994 firebombing of an Illinois synagogue:

“This is a reason why I became a prosecutor … because I had a witnessed an injustice that occurred. And sadly what you’re looking at, so many of the articles that were written about this, they neglect to report that … ultimately the charges were dropped and the … criminals who did it were two Iraqi Christian gang members, and they were tried, prosecuted and sent to prison.

“So, I’m very proud that my father has instilled the values of me of respecting people. I’m a product of him and I’m very proud of him, so I think the media has totally slanted this in a way to disparage it.”

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