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A certain Georgia State Representative really didn’t want to step down, but it just wasn’t his call to stay. In other words, Jason Spencer had to go! Spencer, who exposed himself and yelled racial slurs during an episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Showtime series, Who is America?, is resigning his seat in the state Legislature. The news comes courtesy of the office of Georgia House Speaker David Ralston.

 

AJC.com reports that the pressure Spencer was facing because of his appearance on Cohen’s unbelievably good Who is America? on Sunday was so bad that some politicians were urging a special session to oust him if he refused. Now we know he will step down at the end of the month, Ralston spokesman Kaleb McMichen said late Tuesday.

Spencer apologized for the “ridiculously ugly episode,” but initially refused to resign. Although he lost the GOP primary in May, he could have remained in public office through the November general election.

“Sacha Baron Cohen and his associates took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked,” said Spencer, who added that he was told the techniques would deter “what I believed was an inevitable attack.”

If he refused to step down, he faced potential repercussions: Georgia Republican leaders were researching ways to reprimand him, and two legislative leaders discussed filing a joint ethics complaint targeting Spencer’s behavior.

But he also had financial incentive to stay. If he had remained in office through January, he would have logged eight years of service and become eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health insurance for life.

 

The episode shows Cohen, who portrayed himself as an Israeli military expert, at a gym persuading Spencer to take part in what he was told was a counterterrorism video.

Cohen gets Spencer to yell racial epithets, make offensive remarks about Chinese tourists and pull down his pants and shimmy his naked buttocks toward purported attackers while yelling “USA” and “America.” He was told these tactics ward off homophobic militants.

In another clip after the show’s credits, Spencer returns to the camera with a “message to the terrorists.” He then repeats a racial slur and stabs a knife into the groin area of a dummy clad in a black burqa before shoving another item into the dummy’s mouth.

Yes folks, this is punking at it’s absolute, hilarious best. Sasha Baron Cohen is a master.

In any event, you can get MORE of this story at AJC.com.

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