MAGA Think Tank Praises Sheriff Chad Bianco

Sheriff Chad Bianco receives kudos from Claremont Institute for ‘courageous stand’

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a man who cannot be controlled, is getting accolades from the Claremont Institute for “the courageous stand he’s taken over the past year,” clearly a reference to Bianco having allied himself early in the pandemic with anti-vaxxers and with right-wing anti-abortion advocates in Southern California, according to Slate.com.

The daily online magazine and podcast network today reported on the “Secret ‘Sheriff Fellowship’ Curriculum from the Country’s Most Prominent MAGA Think Tank.” You may read the full story by clicking here. 

“Other than a completely far left, totally biased, writer (notice I didn’t say journalist), it isn’t that bad of an article for something like the National Enquirer,” Bianco told Uken Report. “The progressive left hates the dreaded Constitution so it’s not a shocker they will do anything they can to make people dislike a sheriff they cannot control to push their agenda.”

The magazine pointed out that most recently, Bianco accused a Latina Riverside city councilmember, Clarissa Cervantes, of defacing the county courthouse because of her presence at in a pro-choice protest, spurring calls for his resignation. “You are lucky we couldn’t arrest you!” he threatened Cervantes through social media.

According to the online magazine, last November, the Claremont Institute hosted its inaugural class of “Sheriff Fellows.” Over the course of a week, eight sheriffs—all white men—chosen from the more than 3,000 in the country stayed at the Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, attending a series of discussions, lectures, and fireside chats “steeped in the far-right-wing think tank’s ideology.”

Bianco, re-elected to a four-year term in June, was one of the chosen eight. He won despite Democrats vow to fire him.

Some of the sheriffs brought their wives along; they also were awarded a $1,500 honorarium. (According to emails from his office, Bianco turned down the honorarium, according to Slate.)

While the Claremont Institute hosts a variety of other fellowships, the Sheriffs Fellowship is the first program to focus on elected officials who are currently serving, according to the magazine. For that reason, information about the fellowship and the program is important for voters who live in counties where these sheriffs run jails, serve warrants, detain individuals at traffic stops, and help federal officials enforce immigration laws

According to the online magazine, while the Claremont Institute restricted public access to the fellowship, its review of the fellowship’s previously unreported curriculum reveals a program that presented for the sheriffs two sets of people in America: those communities sheriffs should police as freely and brutally as they see fit, and those “real” Americans who should be considered virtually above the law.

According to the Claremont Institute’s website, “Rather than concentrate on policy like many other think tanks, the Claremont Institute teaches the principles and ideas that shape policy over time to the few that will go on to positions of leadership in media, politics, law, speechwriting, and academia.”