YIKES: Leftist sheriff fails to name the 3 branches of govt.
North Carolina Republican state Rep. Allen Chesser questioned Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden during a state House Oversight Committee hearing.
Chesser, a former police officer and Army veteran, asked the Democratic sheriff, “What branch of government do you operate under?”
McFadden first answered “Mecklenburg County,” then “The Constitution of the United States.”
When asked if he knew how many branches of government exist, he said “No.”
When Chesser listed the three branches—legislative, executive, judicial—and asked which one the sheriff falls under, McFadden replied, “I believe I fall under the last one … judicial.”
Chesser corrected him: “You are incorrect, sir. You fall under the executive.” Chesser later stated he was “not expecting to have to get into a fifth-grade civics lesson with a duly elected sheriff.”
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The hearing addressed public safety and consistent enforcement of state law requiring cooperation with ICE detainers. It was called after the stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska, a young Ukrainian refugee killed on a Charlotte light-rail train.
McFadden has long opposed cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. During the hearing he said, “We do not have a role in enforcement whatsoever, we do not have to follow the rules and the laws that are governed by our lawmakers in Raleigh,” but later clarified the remark applied strictly to immigration enforcement. He stated that his office is now following state law regarding ICE cooperation.
In a Fox News Digital interview the next day, Chesser said he had prepared questions on statements McFadden made to the media that appeared to conflict with his testimony about following the law. He noted the civics exchange prevented him from reaching most of those points.
Chesser described McFadden as having “decided to make himself kind of a centerpiece in the refusal to enforce immigration law here in North Carolina,” specifically by not honoring ICE detainers. He added that public safety in North Carolina should not depend on a person's county of residence and that the law must be applied equally across the state.