Ga. lawmaker uses racial slur, drops pants in TV series

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia lawmaker is the latest public figure caught with his pants down on provocateur Sacha Baron Cohen's new cable TV series, this time literally, as the state legislator exposes his bottom, speaks with a mock Asian accent and yells a racial slur all in the name of fighting terrorism.

In Sunday night's broadcast of Cohen's Showtime series "Who Is America?" Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Republican Rep. Jason 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.

Spencer's on-camera conduct horrified fellow Republicans in Georgia. State House Speaker David Ralston said Spencer "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."

Regardless, there won't be any reckoning for Spencer at the ballot box this year. A Republican challenger already defeated the lawmaker in Georgia's May 22 primary.

The Georgia legislator has been accused in the past of making offensive statements and proposals.

In 2016, Spencer sought to update a 1951 state law that outlawed Ku Klux Klan members from wearing hoods at public rallies. Civil rights and Muslim advocacy groups called Spencer's bill a veiled attempt to ban Muslim women from wearing religious headgear that covers their faces in public. He quickly dropped the proposal.