Georgia lawmaker to resign after using racial slurs on new Sacha Baron Cohen show (ABC News) Georgia lawmaker to resign after using racial slurs on new Sacha Baron Cohen show originally appeared on abcnews.go.com A Georgia state legislator handed in his resignation on Tuesday amid fallout over a controversial television appearance in which he exposed himself on camera, used racial epithets and appeared to speak in a mock-Asian accent. Republican Rep. Jason Spencer caved to mounting pressure for him to step down after an appearance on Sacha Baron Cohen's new Showtime series, "Who Is America?" "Rep. Jason Spencer has written to Speaker Ralston to announce his resignation from the Georgia House of Representatives effective July 31," a spokesperson for the Georgia House of Representatives told ABC News in a statement Tuesday. This image released by Showtime shows Jason Spencer in a scene from the series 'Who Is America,' starring Sacha Baron Cohen. In the episode featuring Spencer, Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Spencer to take part in several out (The Associated Press) He submitted his resignation via email at around 11 p.m. EST. Spencer, who lost a primary election in May, could have remained office through the November election. In the TV episode, which aired Sunday, Spencer is seen using multiple racial slurs, including the N-word, and exposing his bare buttocks while shouting "USA!" and "America!" for what he thought was a counterterrorism video. Spencer apologized for what he called a "ridiculously ugly episode," but initially refused to step down. PHOTO: Sacha Baron Cohen arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., March 4, 2018. (Evan Agostini/Invision via AP, FILE) This image released by Showtime shows Jason Spencer in a scene from the series 'Who Is America,' starring Sacha Baron Cohen. In the episode featuring Spencer, Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Spencer to take part in several out (The Associated Press) "Sacha Baron Cohen and his associates took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked," Spencer said in a statement. He said he was told that the tactics would deter "what I believed was an inevitable attack." Cohen posed as an Israeli military expert who convinced Spencer to participate in over-the-top behavior. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had called for Spencer's resignation, and the state's governor, Nathan Deal, said he was "saddened and disgusted" by the video. "The actions and language used by Jason Spencer are appalling and offensive," Deal said in a statement Monday. "There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it." Story continues 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. — Governor Nathan Deal (@GovernorDeal) July 23, 2018 Spencer's resignation came just hours after Georgia's secretary of state, Brian Kemp, won the state's Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, defeating Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in a runoff election. Both candidates had urged Spencer to resign. "Rep. Spencer's words and behavior are hurtful, insensitive, and completely unacceptable. At the very least, he should issue a public apology for this shameful incident," said Kemp, who is backed by President Donald Trump. Editor's note: Republican Rep. Jason Spencer is a Georgia state legislator. An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to him as a member of Congress. ABC News' Briana Montalvo contributed to this story.<doc-sep>Jason Spencer, the Georgia Republican lawmaker who was fooled into repeatedly yelling a racial epithet on the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s television series, intends to resign effective July 31. The decision was announced early Wednesday in an email from the office of David Ralston, the Georgia House speaker. It was the first real-world consequence of Mr. Cohen’s Showtime series, “Who Is America?” The show has pranked a long list of sitting and former lawmakers, including the former Vice President Dick Cheney; Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California; and the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The episode featuring Mr. Spencer aired on Sunday, and he initially resisted calls to resign, even from within his own party. Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, said in a post on Twitter on Monday that “the actions and language used by Jason Spencer are appalling and offensive.” Mr. Spencer lost his primary in the spring in his bid for a fifth term and initially said he would serve out his final five months, but the drum beat became too loud. [Sacha Baron Cohen is duping Republicans. Is he the James O’Keefe of the left?] By the time the speaker’s office announced the resignation, a fierce bipartisan effort to cast Mr. Spencer out of office had taken shape. It was clear that he would face sustained public and private pressure, and black lawmakers had planned a state Capitol news conference for Wednesday morning to demand that Mr. Spencer step aside.<doc-sep>This image was removed due to legal reasons. A Georgia state lawmaker resigned on Mond ay night after he was featured screaming the n-word, using a racist fake Asian accent, and exposing himself on the latest episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s show Who Is America? Advertisement State Representative Jason Spencer, a Republican, officially resigned around 11 p.m. last night, ABC News reported. His resignation will be effective July 31. Although he’d lost a primary race, he could have stayed in office through the November election had he not shouted racial epithets like “sand nigger” while Cohen, who was posing as an Israeli military officer, convinced him he was learning counterterrorism strategies. And yeah, it got pretty uncomfortable to watch the lengths Spencer was willing to go to in the set-up, including pulling down his pants and chasing Cohen around as a tactic to intimidate potential terrorists with “being seen as gay.” Lest you allow even a modicum of sympathy to boil up, it’s worth a reminder that Spencer is a really bad guy. During the state debate over removing Confederate statues, he threatened a black female colleague that she could “go missing” for her advocacy on the issue, and sponsored an anti-burka bill he spun as an “anti-masking statute” on the Showtime show. While the worried debate about the ethical implications of the show drag on, there is something gratifying about seeing the absolute worst players in politics lose for once.<doc-sep>"My fears were so heightened at that time, I was not thinking clearly nor could I appreciate what I was agreeing to when I participated in his 'class'," he said.<doc-sep>
Georgia state lawmaker Jason Spencer resigned Tuesday night after he was lured into exposing both his racism and his buttocks on Sacha Baron Cohen's new Showtime series, "Who Is America." In a terse letter to Georgia State House Speaker David Ralston, who called on him to resign following Sunday's airing of the second episode of Cohen's show, the representative stated, "This email/letter is to serve as an official resignation notice to your office that I will be resigning my post effective July 31, 2018." Ralston said the legislator "disgraced himself and should resign immediately," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. GOP Gov. Nathan Deal said in a tweet: "There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it." Spencer appeared in a segment in which Cohen portrays an Israeli military expert who is making a video about how to mount a personal defense against potential terrorists. In one scene Cohen's character urges Spencer to draw attention to an unfolding attack. The lawmaker responds by shouting the n-word. In another, Cohen says that Muslim extremists are religiously repulsed by human buttocks. He persuades Spencer to fend off an attacker by charging at him backwards ― he shouts "USA!" and "America!" ― with his bare bottom exposed. Rep. Jason Spencer speaks at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Feb. 28, 2018. Alyssa Pointer / AP file Spencer also speaks with a mock Asian accent while pretending to take so-called up-skirt photos from under a Muslim woman's burqa. Spencer apologized, but for Georgia's top Republicans it was the last straw. In 2016 he was accused by civil rights and Muslim advocacy groups of trying to ban religious headgear. Cohen, meanwhile, has racked up a string of gotcha videos with politicians for "Who Is America." His subjects so far include former Vice President Dick Cheney, Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The show has railed against gun violence and religious intolerance by attempting to portray some leaders, mostly Republicans, as clueless.