95°F
weather icon Clear

Lawmaker to resign after using racial slur, dropping pants on TV

ATLANTA — The state lawmaker who exposed himself and yelled racial slurs on provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen’s new cable TV series will resign, according to a spokesman for Georgia House Speaker David Ralston.

Rep. Jason Spencer will step down at the end of the month, spokesman Kaleb McMichen told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Tuesday.

In Sunday night’s broadcast of Cohen’s Showtime series “Who Is America?” Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Spencer to take part in several outlandish exercises. The lawmaker is told they’re making a counterterrorism video.

Spencer repeatedly shouts a racial slur for black people after Cohen tells him the tactic is useful for drawing bystanders’ attention to an unfolding attack.

He also drops his pants, then his underwear, before backing his exposed rear end toward Cohen while shouting “USA!” and “America!” Cohen told Spencer the move would incite fear in homophobic jihadists. The segment also shows Spencer speaking with a mock Asian accent while pretending to use a selfie-stick to surreptitiously insert a camera phone under a Muslim woman’s burqa.

Ralston and others called for his immediate resignation.

In a statement Monday, Spencer apologized for the “ridiculously ugly episode,” but he initially refused to step down.

Spencer lost the Republican primary in May, but he could have remained in public office through the November election.

MOST READ
Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST
Fed leaves interest rates unchanged even as Trump demands cuts

The Federal Reserve left its key short-term interest rate unchanged for the fifth time this year, brushing off repeated calls from President Donald Trump for a cut.

Worst tsunami risk passes for Hawaii, US after 8.8 Russia quake

The dire warnings following the massive quake off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula evoked memories of catastrophic damage caused by tsunamis over the last quarter-century.

MORE STORIES