At two separate events in recent days, Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher has proposed to "put a damn fence on the border going to Mexico and start shooting."
Wurzelbacher first made the remarks during a campaign rally for Arizona Republican state Rep. Lori Klein on Friday, according to video published by Prescott eNews.
"For years I've said, you know, put a damn fence on the border, going to Mexico and start shooting," he insisted.
Wurzelbacher then repeated the remarks at a so-called "Patriot Rally" with Klein on Saturday.
"I'm running for Congress. How many congressmen or people running for Congress have you heard, put a fence up and start shooting? None? Well you heard it here first. Put troops on the border and start shooting, I bet that solves our immigration problem real quick."
While Klein refused to condemn the call for border violence, her District 11 opponent, Republican state House Speaker Andy Tobin, called for Wurzelbacher to apologize or go back home to Ohio.
"I would ask for him to retract the statement as made in jest, and if not made in jest, I'm appalled at him," Tobin told KTVK. "We don't do that in Arizona."
Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) launched Wurzelbacher into fame during the 2008 presidential election when he repeatedly referred to "Joe the Plumber" during a debate with then-Sen. Barack Obama. McCain's daughter, Meghan McCain, called Wurzelbacher's latest idea "ridiculous." She had previously said that he was a "dumbass" who should "stick to plumbing."
Klein, who is running for re-election in the 11th District, drew charges of racism in 2011 when she read a controversial letter on the state Senate floor, asserting that "[m]ost of the Hispanic students do not want to be educated but rather be gang members and gangsters."
She is also known for pointing a loaded gun at the chest of Richard Ruelas, a reporter for The Arizona Republic, while he was interviewing her at the state Capitol.
“Oh, it’s so cute,” Klein said of the raspberry-pink .380 Ruger that she carries in purse at all times, later explaining that Ruelas had no need to worry because "I just didn’t have my hand on the trigger."
