GOP lawmaker uses racial slur, drops pants on Sacha Baron Cohen's show
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
July 23, 2018
Updated:
July 23, 2018 11:43 AM EDT
Sacha Baron Cohen attends the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 90th Academy Awards at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, on March 4, 2018. (Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images)
ATLANTA — A Georgia lawmaker is seen using racial slurs and dropping his pants in an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime series “Who Is America?”.
In Sunday night’s broadcast, Republican Rep. Jason Spencer of Woodbine repeatedly uses a racial slur for African Americans and later exposes his bottom after being told it helps scare away Muslim terrorists.
Spencer lost in the May primary but his term doesn’t end until his replacement takes over after the November election. But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has called for Spencer to resign.
“Representative Spencer has disgraced himself and should resign immediately,” Ralson said. “Georgia is better than this.”
The newspaper reports Spencer had earlier threatened legal action to prevent the network from airing footage of him.
In a statement Monday, Spencer apologized for the “ridiculously ugly episode” but he refused to step down from office.
In the episode, Cohen played an Israeli military expert and told Spencer to take part in what he was told was a counterterrorism video.
Spencer is told to yell racial epithets and shimmy his exposed rear-end toward purported Muslim attackers screaming “USA” and “America.” Cohen told Spencer the performance would ward off terrorists.
Spencer said he thought the techniques would prevent “what I believed was an inevitable attack.”
Other Georgia leaders also criticized Spencer.
“There is no excuse for this type of behaviour, ever,” Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said in a tweet, “and I am saddened and disgusted by it.”
The Islamic Council on American-Islamic Relations also called for Spencer’s resignation.
“The ignorance and malice behind Islamophobia has led Mr. Spencer to not only pursue bad policy, but engage in humiliating and hateful behaviour unbecoming of anyone — especially a state legislator,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, director of the group’s Georgia chapter.
Spencer faced calls for his resignation last year after he warned a black former state legislator that she won’t be “met with torches but something a lot more definitive” if she continued to call for the removal of Confederate statues in southern Georgia, the newspaper reported.
[youtube]4k4pMTsa1Kw[/youtube]
http://politics.myajc.com/blog/poli...ts-humiliating-segment/vNIDCsPu8FgZx7uzmRkrQN
http://torontosun.com/entertainment...l-slur-drops-pants-on-sacha-baron-cohens-show
Associated Press
More from Associated Press
Published:
July 23, 2018
Updated:
July 23, 2018 11:43 AM EDT
Sacha Baron Cohen attends the 2018 Vanity Fair Oscar Party following the 90th Academy Awards at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, California, on March 4, 2018. (Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/Getty Images)
ATLANTA — A Georgia lawmaker is seen using racial slurs and dropping his pants in an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime series “Who Is America?”.
In Sunday night’s broadcast, Republican Rep. Jason Spencer of Woodbine repeatedly uses a racial slur for African Americans and later exposes his bottom after being told it helps scare away Muslim terrorists.
Spencer lost in the May primary but his term doesn’t end until his replacement takes over after the November election. But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has called for Spencer to resign.
“Representative Spencer has disgraced himself and should resign immediately,” Ralson said. “Georgia is better than this.”
The newspaper reports Spencer had earlier threatened legal action to prevent the network from airing footage of him.
In a statement Monday, Spencer apologized for the “ridiculously ugly episode” but he refused to step down from office.
In the episode, Cohen played an Israeli military expert and told Spencer to take part in what he was told was a counterterrorism video.
Spencer is told to yell racial epithets and shimmy his exposed rear-end toward purported Muslim attackers screaming “USA” and “America.” Cohen told Spencer the performance would ward off terrorists.
Spencer said he thought the techniques would prevent “what I believed was an inevitable attack.”
Other Georgia leaders also criticized Spencer.
“There is no excuse for this type of behaviour, ever,” Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said in a tweet, “and I am saddened and disgusted by it.”
The Islamic Council on American-Islamic Relations also called for Spencer’s resignation.
“The ignorance and malice behind Islamophobia has led Mr. Spencer to not only pursue bad policy, but engage in humiliating and hateful behaviour unbecoming of anyone — especially a state legislator,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, director of the group’s Georgia chapter.
Spencer faced calls for his resignation last year after he warned a black former state legislator that she won’t be “met with torches but something a lot more definitive” if she continued to call for the removal of Confederate statues in southern Georgia, the newspaper reported.
[youtube]4k4pMTsa1Kw[/youtube]
http://politics.myajc.com/blog/poli...ts-humiliating-segment/vNIDCsPu8FgZx7uzmRkrQN
http://torontosun.com/entertainment...l-slur-drops-pants-on-sacha-baron-cohens-show
