Sacha Baron Cohen just used a “pedophile detecting machine” on Roy Moore

On this week's episode of “Who Is America?”, Sacha Baron Cohen used a “pedophile detecting machine” on former Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore. It went off — and then so did Moore.

For the third installment of the new Showtime series, Cohen posed as Israeli terrorism expert Col. Erran Morad and questioned Moore over a number of allegations made by women who say Moore sexually propositioned them or inappropriately touched them when they were teenagers and he was a prosecutor in his thirties. The allegations, apparently long-known to locals, who even recalled Moore being banned from a shopping mall to protect the teenagers there, resurfaced during Moore’s December special election campaign.

Cohen sat down with Moore to discuss Moore’s support for Israel and Alabama's love for equality, before taking out his “pedophile detecting machine,” a piece of technology Cohen says was invented by the Israeli government.

“Sex offenders and particularly pedophiles secrete an enzyme for DDHT, which is actually detectable,” Cohen says in the clip. “It is three times the level as non perverts, so the phrase ‘sweating like a rapist’ is actually based on science.”

Cohen claimed the machine is in use in schools and playgrounds in Israel to detect if anyone around is a pedophile, explaining that if the machine starts beeping, that means the person is a pedophile, and law enforcement is alerted. Then he took the wand, which resembled a metal detector, and waved it over Moore.

It started beeping.

“It’s malfunctioning,” Cohen said, before attempting it on himself and another person. The detector stayed silent. “Did you lend the jacket to somebody else?”

Moore, who started the interview out happy to be there, became visibly upset.

“I've been married for 33 years, I've never had an accusation of such things,” Moore said, despite having been accused multiple times of such things. “If this is an instrument, then certainly I'm not a pedophile. I am simply cutting this conversation right now.”

Then Moore walked out of the interview.

It’s just the latest in a slew of controversial clips from Cohen skewering right-wing politicians. In the first episode of “Who Is America?” Cohen convinced a bunch of Republicans to support a fake Kinderguardian program that would arm children with guns. In his second episode, he got a Georgia GOP lawmaker to pull down his pants and shout “n-----.”

Cover image via Showtime