On Saturday, June 27, Sacha Baron Cohen apparently managed to infiltrate the far-right ‘March for Our Rights 3’ rally in Olympia, Washington, getting a number of attendees to sing along to a racist song.
Song lyrics included, ‘Corona is a liberal hoax’ and ‘Obama, what we gonna do? We inject him with the Wuhan flu’. Other targets included Dr. Anthony Fauci, CNN, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and Hillary Clinton, with the character on stage suggesting they ‘chop ’em up like the Saudis do’.
Although it’s not been confirmed whether it’s definitely Baron Cohen behind the beard, it does seem like something straight out of his Who Is America? series. Footage taken at the event shows some attendees laughing appreciatively, with a good few singing along.
The event organizers, later on, revealed that Baron Cohen had apparently disguised himself as a political action committee (PAC) leader, who wanted to sponsor the right-wing rally.
According to the Daily Beast report, Cohen then reportedly hired his own security to stop organizers getting on stage or cutting the power during the set that allowed him to deliver full, uninterrupted performance, dressed in dungarees and cowboy hat.
There’s a point where the band leader asked the audience, ‘Who wants to chop ’em up as the Saudis do?’, and received an enthusiastic ‘yeah!’ from some members of the audience.
Yelm City Councilman, James Connor Blair, spoke about the incident and described the prank as being a ‘BS stunt’, stating:
After the crowd realized what he was saying, and turned on him, his security then rushed the stage and evacuated them to a waiting private ambulance that was contracted to be their escape transport.
However, recorded video shows that some attendees were happy to sing along with the lyrics, cheering at the suggestion that ‘mask wearers’ be locked up ‘like we used to do’.
The ‘March for Our Rights 3’ rally was organized by the 3% of Washington, also known as the Washington Three Percenters, a far-right group that describes itself as ‘America loving, unapologetic Patriots’.
The group wrote on their Facebook page:
We of the WA3% were appalled at the performance of an entertainer adorned in clown-face, who – much to our group’s mutual repugnance – voiced a series of racist and antisemitic jokes and songs, while on the stand.
This display of disgusting antics was neither condoned nor accepted by WA3%, and we disavow any affiliation with this lamentable individual.
Sacha Baron Cohen has yet to make a comment about the incident0.