Former Republican politician Joe Walsh on being duped by Sacha Baron Cohen: "My hands are up. I said something stupid"
The ex-congressman butted heads with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday
Former Republican politician Joe Walsh is on the mea culpa trail after his appearance on Sacha Baron Cohen's Who Is America? – and on Wednesday he butted heads with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain as he tried to explain himself.
The ex-congressman was one of the many current and former politicians to appear on the show and support a movement – led by Baron Cohen's character Colonel Erran Morrad – to arm children with guns. Watch Walsh's segment on the show below.
“My hands are up – I said something stupid," admitted Walsh, explaining that he had been "duped" into reading something he didn't believe when pressed by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about his words on the show. "I was fooled. I have to own what I said.”
The hosts then asked him if he truly believed children aged four and over should be armed with grenades and semi-automatic weapons.
"Not at all. I wasn’t thinking. Why did I say it? I’m not going to blame him [Sacha Baron Cohen]," he said. "I was talking about a programme I thought Israel have. I was wrong to say it, but there’s no doubt about that. I got duped.”
And he did not take kindly to Morgan's line of questioning, which was, it must be said, significantly stronger than in his recent interview with Donald Trump.
Clearly aggravated, he asked Morgan and Reid if they had ever said anything on air that they didn't mean, before ending the interview by saying: “Piers, screw you! You don’t know what’s in my head. You don’t believe me!”