Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has not slept much. The biggest reason is, of course, he’s been leading (with the FBI) the investigation into the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, Today show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mom, for 19 days now.
Nanos must also be tired of talking, though that one is on him. The sheriff has spent an unusual amount of time (given the circumstances) conducting one-on-one interviews with select journalists — including a fresh round on Tuesday — instead of holding a press conference with all at once. That has kind of been his M.O. since a joint press conference with the FBI early on in the investigation didn’t go over like gangbusters. Some of the time spent in this new round of interviews has been the sheriff turning the tables on the very reporter seated on the other side of his desk.
Nanos is criticizing his critics, which for a democrat — sheriff is an elected position — primarily means the right-wing outlets. To that end, notable Nanos squabbles this week included one with NewsNation and another with Newsmax, which made the faces receiving his gripes Brian Entin and John Huddy, respectively. All of this is not to say Nanos is the one picking the fight — he feels like the one being picked on. Nanos’ POV is not entirely wrong, even if he’s mishandling the PR of it all.
Newsmax, the further-right outlet of the two, had the more in-your-face experience on Tuesday. On social media platform X, Huddy later called his conversation with Nanos “tense,” tweeting: “Let’s just say they did not put out the welcome mat for us.”
In the interest of fairness, which is what reporting should strive to be, that is kind of exactly what the sheriff’s office did, John — with professional lighting and everything. Nanos said he accepted Huddy into his office to set the record straight on one particular grievance.
“I opened the door to discuss something that I thought needed to be discussed. And that was that the sheriff is blocking the FBI. That the sheriff doesn’t play [well] with the FBI,” Nanos said. “That’s like the furthest thing from the truth.”
Newsmax (and other outlets) have reported contentiousness between the sheriff’s office and the FBI, suggesting that it has marred the investigation.
In a moment of irony, Nanos next said that “this ain’t the time” for politics, after which he immediately took a shot at his political opponents. “This isn’t an election campaign — that’s three years down the road. You already lost two elections, let it go.”
Don’t be a sore winner, Chris.
Nanos’ defensive posture is understandable to a point. He didn’t ask for any of this — well, other than the job.
Nanos is arguably in over his head here, and what county sheriff in America wouldn’t be? Imagine everyone is watching you do your job — including the President of the United States — for weeks on end, with your every move under a microscope. Amateur sleuths — and by that I am not referring to Huddy and Entin — are calling it amateur hour. Fake news is spreading fake reporters faster than any communications team on the planet could dispel it. Literally tens of thousands of tips — statistically almost all false and mixed in with a sprinkling of fraud — are coming in. Some of the very people criticizing you are the ones asking for more access. TMZ is getting supposed ransom letters before you do — and then reading them on air. And oh yeah, the clock is ticking on an 84-year-old missing mother and grandmother.
As a reporter, I appreciate Nanos’ cooperation with the media. He has been pretty open about it and likely as candid as he can be — perhaps even too candid at times, which can explain inconsistencies in semantics. We joke that he should probably stop talking for a while, and then we grill him for the latest.
Like their respective outlets, Entin plays things more down the middle than Huddy. That didn’t make his time with Nanos all roses and no thorns — or regionally, I suppose, all echinopsis and no spines.
Before the cameras rolled on their Tuesday interview, Nanos stated his intention to challenge some of Entin’s reporting, according to Entin.
“It was kind of awkward for a second,” Entin said later in a YouTube recap on his personal channel. “He said, ‘You have questions for me and I have questions for you.’”
Though Entin’s edit did not include the pushback — he actually said they ran out of time — part-time Entin colleague and full-time Entin cheerleader (honestly, it’s getting weird) Ashleigh Banfield ran the footage on her Drop Dead Serious video podcast.
“The sheriff decided to go over time to just take the piss out of Brian Entin,” Banfield says. “When Brian’s 10 minutes were up — the timed 10 minutes he was allotted — that’s when the sheriff decided to pick a fight. With Brian Entin! Dude. Read the fucking room! The whole country loves Brian Entin. That guy can do no wrong.”
Banfield has a dog in this fight — even beyond her role as president of the Brian Entin Fan Club, which to be fair to her, is growing.
It was Banfield who ruffled Nanos’ feathers by reporting early on in the investigation that an “impeccable” law enforcement source told her Guthrie’s son-in-law “may” have been “the prime suspect.” At the one press conference we’ve had to-date, Nanos called Banfield’s report “reckless.” He has since said all family members have been cleared of wrongdoing; Banfield stands by her reporting within the context of the time she reported it.
Across from Entin, Nanos took issue with a graphic (below) run on NewsNation program On Balance with Leland Vittert. The graphic, which almost certainly was not created by Entin — though surely was (to some degree) informed by his on-the-ground reporting — listed 10 “Investigation Mistakes” made by Nanos’ office. It was pretty harsh. Banfield acknowledged on her podcast that a few of the bullet points may not have been entirely fair.
On Balance with Leland Vittert NewsNation Interview Highlights Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos about Nancy Guthrie
Courtesy
“Every single one of those … can be disputed,” Nanos said to Entin. “They’re completely without any factual basis to them. And that inaccuracy I would think your team — your producers and network — would want to resolve.”
Welcome to the world of cable news, sheriff.
A spokesperson for NewsNation did not immediately respond to THR‘s request for comment.
