Sacha Baron Cohen tricked Roy Moore with Israel award
Failed Alabama senate candidate said comedian had him fly to Washington under false pretenses
Roy Moore, the former Alabama attorney-general who lost a Senate race amid multiple accusations of molesting young women, announced Thursday that he had been duped by a comedian. The disgraced GOP candidate sent a statement to reporters saying that he was tricked by Sacha Baron Cohen, who told him he was receiving an award for his support for Israel. Moore realized this week that what he thought was an honor connected to the Jewish state was a prank filmed for Cohen’s upcoming Showtime series This Is America.
“In February 2018, I was invited to Washington, DC to receive an award for my strong support of Israel in commemoration of her 70th anniversary as a nation,” Moore wrote. The politician said he accepted the award because he shares “a strong belief in God as the Creator and Sustainer of all life, as does Israel.”
But only months later did Moore realize that he’d been duped.
“I did not know Sacha Cohen, or that a Showtime TV series was being planned to embarrass, humiliate, and mock not only Israel, but also religious conservatives such as Sarah Palin Joe Walsh, and Dick Cheney.”
Showtime released a trailer earlier this week for This Is America, which was the first indication that the show even existed. The trailer featured Cheney. On Tuesday former Alaska governor Sarah Palin acknowledged that she too had been tricked by Cohen.
On Wednesday, Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman, said he believed he had also been taken in by Cohen. Walsh said on Twitter this week that he was “invited to a pro-Israel dinner that honored defenders of Israel” earlier this year.
“I was rushed to the studio. Production was a mess. I sat down and we started talking pro-Israel stuff, Israeli defense, and then out of left field the interviewer starts talking about how children should defend themselves against terrorist attacks,” Walsh tweeted. He added that he stopped the interview partway through and questioned its direction, and was rushed out of the studio. He tweeted a photo of the fake award he received, thanking him for “significant contributions to the State of Israel.”
Cohen, who was born to an Israeli mother and British father in London, is best known for his films Borat and Bruno. He is currently filming a Netflix project about famed Israeli spy Eli Cohen.
Last year, while defending her husband against charges of antisemitism, Kayla Moore made waves after proclaiming to reporters that “one of our attorneys is a Jew.”
The disgraced GOP candidate, who allegedly assaulted multiple young women, ended his statement on Thursday with a threat to sue Showtime for airing a “defamatory attack on my character.”