Roy Moore: I’m Glad To Be Duped By Sasha Baron Cohen, That’s How Much I Love Israel

We’ll be seeing more of Roy Moore on Sasha Baron Cohen’s new show Image by GETTY IMAGES/FORWARD MONTAGE

By Jenny Singer July 13, 2018

Say what you will about trickster comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, but aren’t you glad that it was he who brought Roy Moore’s name back into the news and not, say, a 13-year-old?

Disgraced Alabama judge Roy Moore has issued a defiant statement explaining that he attended what he believed to be a conference honoring Israel’s 70th birthday which was actually an elaborate set up by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for his new “Who Is America?” with Showtime, set to air this Sunday. The faux-conference, which also lured former-congressman Joe Walsh and likely others, took place in Washington, DC in February.

Moore said the gambit worked to “embarrass, humiliate, and mock” him and Israel, though Moore, who lost the 2017 special election in Alabama after nine women accused him of sexual assault, tends to have that kind of thing under control.

Moore ended his statement by threatening legal action against the Showtime network, and alluding to a more direct uprising: “It’s been a long time since I fought for my country in Vietnam,” he wrote. “I’m ready to defend her again.

INBOX: Statement of Judge Roy Moore on Sasha Cohen’s CBS/Showtime series, Who is America? pic.twitter.com/uVBthwN6cQ

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) July 12, 2018

The question remains: Will Baron Cohen’s newest venture into audacious mockumentary turn a mirror on the absurdity of conservative politics? Or will it merely alienate Americans who dislike foreign elites like Baron Cohen and think Israel and disabled veterans are no laughing matter?

And then, of course, there’s this:

We need to brace ourselves for the very real possibility that Sacha Baron Cohen held a fake pro-Israel conference in DC and tricked dozens of conservative luminaries into singing a fake Israeli national anthem https://t.co/QUDQ2HeHao

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) July 12, 2018

Jenny Singer is the deputy lifestyle editor for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.