Because it’s the 2000s again for some reason, we’re now in a place where – like in the halcyon days of yore – prominent people are being pressured to resign in shame thanks to something they did on a Sacha Baron Cohen show. This time it’s Georgia state representative Jason Spencer, who dropped his trousers and screamed the N-word on camera on Stan exclusive series ‘Who Is America?’ after being told it would scare off terrorists.
Spencer has faced calls to step down, including from Georgia’s House speaker, which you would imagine might be the absolute least you would do after screaming a racial slur repeatedly on camera after being asked to by a fake Israeli special forces commando.
Georgia House speaker David Ralston said in a statement that Spencer “has disgraced himself and should resign immediately”.
“Georgia is better than this,” he added.
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal also shot out a tweet condemning Ralston’s appearance on the show, calling his actions “appalling and offensive.”
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.
— Former Gov. Nathan Deal (@GovernorDeal) July 23, 2018
Like many others who realised they were duped by Baron Cohen for his new show, Spencer tried to get ahead of the curve last week with a preemptive statement, in which he said that the show’s producers “took advantage of [his] fears” and complained that he wasn’t given the opportunity to have “final approval over footage used,” which would obviously kinda defeat the point.
https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/1018989298442559489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1018989298442559489&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vulture.com%2F2018%2F07%2Fall-the-people-sacha-baron-cohen-has-duped-so-far.html
(You may note that the full statement does not contain any confession about what he actually did – remove his pants and scream the N-word – possibly because what he actually did is insane.)
In a statement provided to HuffPost, Spencer refused to step down, on the basis that he lost his primary election and wouldn’t be eligible to hold office next election anyway. As such, he’s going to try to hold his seat for the remaining five months of his term. Good luck with that, buddy!
Here’s that part of his statement:
I deeply regret the language I used at his request as well as my participation in the ‘class’ in general. If I had not been so distracted by my fears, I never would have agreed to participate in the first place.
I apologise to my family, friends, and the people of my district for this ridiculously ugly episode. Finally, there are calls for me to resign. I recently lost my primary election, so I will not eligible to hold office next term. Therefore, I will finish the remaining five months at my post and vacate my seat.
Who Is America? is currently streaming exclusively on Stan.
