Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime series, Who Is America?, continues to cause political ripples after several right-wing figures, including Sarah Palin, have lashed out over feeling “duped” during “manipulative” interviews. These encounters haven’t turned out well so far for politicians, including Georgia state lawmaker Jason Spencer, who’s resigning this week after dropping his pants and yelling racial slurs on the series. Cohen’s latest episode featured embattled, now-failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused by several women of pursuing or sexually assaulting them while they were teens.
Moore ends up walking out of the above interview with Cohen’s character, Israel Colonel Erran Morad, after a run-in with a metal detector-like device dubbed a “pedophile detector.” This clash arrives following polite chit-chat about why Moore wanted to lead Alabama, after which Morad mentions the phrase, “sweating like a rapist,” before introducing the device, which promptly begins beeping like crazy anytime it approaches Moore.
Moore visibly reacts the first time the device goes off, which happens again and again. “I have been married 33 years. I have never had an accusation of such things,” he insisted before complaining about the technology and bolting from the set. Moore went on to sustain a surprise loss against Democrat Doug Jones in their deep red state. A few weeks ago, Moore hinted that he’d been fooled by Cohen and threatened to sue Showtime if they aired this segment. Apparently, Moore believed that he was meeting with Cohen’s character to accept an award for supporting Israel, and the Republican has since slammed Cohen for his “trickery, deception, and dishonesty.”
Obviously, Showtime didn’t flinch while deciding to air this episode.
