British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen dupes Republicans into supporting arming children in his new show Who Is America?
He poses as an Israeli anti-terrorist expert called Col Erran Morad, and one clip shows Republicans backing his plans to arm kindergarten school kids with guns.
He gets two sitting Republican congressmen, Dana Rohrabacher of California and Joe Wilson of South Carolina, to endorse his "Kinderguardians" scheme that teaches pre-schoolers to use guns so they can defend themselves.
The scheme "introduces specially selected children, from 12 to four years old, to pistols, rifles, semi-automatics, and a rudimentary knowledge of mortars," explains former congressman Joe Walsh, a talk radio host, who appears in the video.
Mr Walsh is joined by former Senate Republican leader Trent Lot, and the executive director emeritus of Gun Owners of America Larry Pratt.
In a hilarious clip, Mr Pratt appears to be tricked into reading a ridiculous explanation of why children make great gun shooters: "Children under five also have elevated levels of the pheromone Blink-182, produced by the part of the liver known as the Rita Ora."
Another gun rights activist, Philip Van Cleave, appears in the video to show off stuffed animals with weapons inside that he dubs "Puppy Pistol" and "Uzicorn".
While it may seem shocking that Baron Cohen was able to convince so many powerful Republicans to publicly support the idea of arming children with guns, it's not all that surprising.
An NRA article suggests children use a Thompson/Center HotShot rifle, "a tiny gun intended for the very youngest shooters".
After the mass shooting that took 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in south Florida in February, US President Donald Trump called for teachers to be armed as a way of combating school shootings.
Sarah Palin, the former Alaska Governor and 2008 US vice presidential nominee, lashed out at Baron Cohen last week with a bitter Facebook post in which she labels him "evil", "truly sick" for tricking her into appearing on his new show.
"I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick 'humour' of the British 'comedian' Sacha Baron Cohen," she wrote.
Newshub.
