It’s only the third episode of Sacha Baron Cohen‘s Who Is America? and he’s causing some serious controversy south of the border.
Last week, Cohen pranked former Georgia lawmaker Jason Spencer, who proceeded to go on a racist rant and pull his pants down on camera. After much outside pressure and backlash, Spencer resigned from his position three days after the episode aired.
In Sunday night’s episode, Cohen pranked former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore, who was accused in November of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 1979.
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Leigh Corfman, now 52, explained that she first met Moore while she was at a courthouse with her mother. Moore later called and asked her to meet him.
Corfman said Moore laid out blankets on the floor of his living room on their second meeting.
“During the course of that, he removed my clothing, he came back in wearing his white underwear, he touched me under my clothing and he tried to get me to touch him as well,” Corfman said, adding that she then told Moore she was uncomfortable and he drove her home.
She did not meet or speak with him again. Largely due to this accusation and others by additional women, Moore lost an election last December to his Democrat rival. The former judge has strongly denied any wrongdoing and filed a lawsuit against several of the women accusing him.
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Playing off the allegations, Cohen, dressed again as his “anti-terror” expert Erran Morad, presented Moore with a fake “pedophile detector test.”
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“It turns out that sex offenders and particularly pedophiles secrete an enzyme for DDHT, which is actually detectable,” said Cohen (as Morad) to Moore. “It is three times the level of non-perverts, so the phrase ‘sweating like a rapist’ is actually based on science. In Israel, they’ve developed a machine that is used in schools and playgrounds to detect anyone coming in, and if they detect the pedophile, the wand alerts the law enforcement and schools within a hundred-mile radius.”
Cohen ran the gadget over himself and it was silent. When he ran it over Moore’s body, it began to beep.
“It’s malfunctioning,” Cohen said, before trying it out on another person. When it didn’t beep, he looked back at Moore.
“Is this your jacket?” Cohen asked. “Did you lend the jacket to somebody else, maybe?”
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“I’m not accusing you at all,” Cohen replied.
Moore discredited the device and said, “certainly I’m not a pedophile.”
Offended, he cut off the interview.
“It’s been nice,” he said. “I support Israel. I don’t support this kind of stuff.” Moore then walked out.
Moore addressed the Who Is America? interview in a July 12 Facebook post, saying he “doesn’t need Sacha Cohen to tell me who America is.”
“I don’t need Sacha Cohen to tell me who America is, but I can tell him that America is a proud Nation which sprang from humble beginnings and a strong belief in God, virtue, and morality,” read the post. “As an American, I would never hide my identity and deceive others only to mock and ridicule them as this Showtime Series is designed to do. America is not only about being proud but about being brave and standing for what we believe.”
Baron Cohen has lampooned a number of other politicians and celebrities on Who Is America?, including former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Bachelor contestant Corrine Olympios.
— With files from Maham Abedi
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