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As it happenedended

Who is America? episode 5 LIVE: Corey Lewandoswki - Donald Trump's former campaign manager latest to be fooled

Following Joe Arpaio and Roy Moore, another Trump ally is in the show's crosshairs

Christopher Hooton
Monday 13 August 2018 01:43 BST
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Who Is America: Sacha Baron Cohen talks to Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski about fascism

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Showtime and Sacha Baron Cohen's Who is America? reaches its antepenultimate episode tonight, its main target being Donald Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Posing as his far-right conspiracy theorist and "citizen journalist" character Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., PhD, Baron Cohen brings up Charlottesville and adds insult to injury after Trump's infamous "both sides" comment.

"Why should the president pick a side between anti-fascists and fascists; he's the president of all people?" Ruddick Jr., asks Lewandowski in a trailer for the episode, to which he noncommittally muses: "There is a place and a time to disagree with people everywhere, okay. You don't have to agree with people. You have to respect them [though], you can't be attacking them."

Sheriff Joe Arpaio responds to controversial Who Is America appearance

​Lewandowski, who was muscled out of the campaign manager job in June 2016 by Paul Manafort (who is currently on trial for tax evasion, bank fraud, money laundering and more), famously responded on-air to a news anchor brings up the case of a 10-year-old immigrant girl with Down syndrome who had been forcibly taken from her mother and put in a cage a under the Trump administration's family separation policy by saying: "Womp womp."

We don't know who else will feature in tonight's episode - possibly Sarah Palin, who admitted to having been duped by Baron Cohen, though according to a Showtime boss "there are several people who have thrown themselves in front of buses that may not be heading their way" (their interviews simply didn't make the cut).

Watch along with us with our live blog below (please allow a moment for it to load):

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Show starts in 50 minutes. No response on Twitter from Lewandowski as of yet, whose only tweet (well, retweet) since the trailer with him in dropped concerns reality TV star Omarosa.

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 02:12

In case you missed it, here's a review/recap of last week's ep:

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 02:16

Lewandowski was fired/split from the Trump campaign over two years ago, though you wouldn't know it judging by his Twitter profile...

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 02:19

Like all of Who is America?'s characters, Finnish YouTube personality OMGWHIZZBOYOMG! is now on Twitter.

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 02:35

Reader comment from a couple of weeks back on the show's impotence when it comes to satirising Democrats:

'All things being equal there is just no-one on the left who would be stupid or craven enough to go camera and advocate for toddlers to have guns “and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars”. There just isn’t and I don’t know the ‘left’ version of that prank would be that could elicit such terrifying results.'

True, but could you get a prominent Dem to agree with a Sarah Jeong-ian "kill all men" sentiment? Probably.

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 02:45

15 minutes until broadcast.

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 02:46

We're off, and first up is ex-convict Rick Sherman dabbling in EDM.

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 03:02

Not the biggest fan of this character but loving Rick's DJ banter.

​"If you believe we should stop shaming murderers, say yeah!"

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 03:07

Corey's up next.

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 03:08

Not exactly the strongest denouncement of genocide there: "I don't know about that."

Christopher Hooton13 August 2018 03:11

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