Georgia Lawmaker Faces Calls to Step Down After Segment on Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Who Is America?’
A Georgia lawmaker faced calls to resign after Showtime aired an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Who Is America?,” in which Jason Spencer yells the N-word and exposes himself.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal wrote on Twitter that “the actions and language used by Jason Spencer are appalling and offensive. There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it.”
In the episode, Cohen poses as an ex-Mossad officer, Col. Erran Morad Cohen, who convinced Spencer to take part in a training video. He falls for Cohen’s ploy to say the “N-word,” and at one point he agrees to pull down his pants and scream “America!”
Spencer lost his primary this year, so he was already on his way out, but Georgia House Speaker David Ralston is calling for him to resign. “Representative Spencer has disgraced himself and should resign immediately. Georgia is better than this,” he said in a statement, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In a statement to the paper, Spencer apologized and said that “Sacha Baron Cohen and his associates took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked.” Last week, he threatened legal action against Showtime if the segment aired. In the episode, he also made slurs against other ethnic groups.
He’s one of a number of political figures to have been duped into doing foolish things on Cohen’s show. On the same episode, former Vice President Dick Cheney signed a “waterboarding kit.” Last week, a group of current and former Republican lawmakers were shown taking part in a faux video promoting the idea of arming kindergarten children.
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