Who is America: Sacha Baron Cohen dupes Trump surrogates into defending neo-Nazi groups

Sheriff David Clarke and Corey Lewandowski become the latest political figures to be fooled by the satirist

Two of President Trump’s most loyal supporters were caught out by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on last night’s episode of Who is America?, his weekly political satire series, during discussions about support for the far-right.

Sheriff David Clarke – the cowboy hat-wearing former sheriff of Milwaukee county who frequently appears on Fox News to defend Trump – said “you don’t want to take sides” when asked about fascists and anti-fascists in Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

And the former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told one of the Baron Cohen’s characters that “you have to respect them”, referring to far-right, white supremacist activists.

Their remarks resemble Trump’s much-criticised statements after the white supremacist rally held in Charlottesville last August. The president said there were “very fine people” on both sides of the violent clashes that took place in the Virginia city.

Baron Cohen’s Finnish YouTube star character OMGWhizzBoyOMG interviewed Clarke in a spoof toy unboxing video in the latest episode of his political satire. He took the opportunity to ask about the anti-fascist group Antifa.

“So if you were the sheriff in the 30s in German and the anti-fascists were marching, the Antifa were marching, what would you have done to stop them?” the YouTuber asked.

Clarke responded: “Well, you have to act aggressively…You’ve got to use force, disperse the crowd. You have to be willing to arrest people. Take them to jail.”

“It’s a shame that there weren’t brave sheriffs like you around in Germany in the 30s because you could have protected the fascists and let them speak their mind a bit clearer, and then things could have been done a bit quicker,” WhizzBoy suggested.

“Well, you don’t want to take sides,” said Clarke.

“Of course, particularly not in Germany in the 30s,” WhizzBoy replied.

Baron Cohen’s far-right conspiracy theorist character, Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr, took a similar tack when interviewing Lewandowski.

“Why should the president pick a side between anti-fascists and fascists; he’s the president of all people?” the Ruddick Jr. character asked.

Lewandowski responded: “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, you can’t be attacking them.”

“You can’t be attacking honest, fascist people that just want to express their right to start a genocide. That is their right,” said Baron Cohen’s character.

Lewandowski was fired from the Trump campaign in June 2016.

In April this year he reportedly told Democrat lawmakers “I’m not answering you f***ing questions” when questioned by the House Intelligence Committee panel investigating possible Russian election interference.

On last week’s episode of Who is America?, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio was fooled into saying he would be willing to accept oral sex from President Trump.