British Actor Sacha Baron Cohen: ‘Democracy Being Disintegrated’ Under Trump

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen claimed in a recent interview with left-wing Hollywood star Don Cheadle that U.S. democracy is “being disintegrated” under President Donald Trump and argued the social media giant Twitter is partly to blame.

During the pair’s sit-down for Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series, Cohen discussed his Showtime program Who Is America? — a show centered around the funnyman donning disguises to lampoon (mostly) conservative political figures with fake interviews. Cohen received blowback over reports he allegedly impersonated a wheelchair-bound veteran to gain access to former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The filmed prank was ultimately never released because, according to Cohen, “it just wasn’t funny enough.”

The provocateur also made headlines for a segment in which he dupped Georgia State Rep. Jason Spencer (R) into exposing himself and shouting racial insults as part of a faux counterterrorism training video while posing as an Israeli military expert.

A partial transcript is as follows: 

SACHA BARON COHEN: I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but I want to see people’s real thoughts. I’m provoking them sometimes to see the effect of this new political culture that we’re in. It’s not just Trump. We’re in the biggest revolution that’s happened in the history of civilization. We are in the internet age. It’s bigger than the Industrial Revolution. It’s transformed the way people think; no one knows what facts are anymore. It allows people who are spreading lies to actually seem like they’re legitimate. Trump without Twitter probably would not have become president, which is why Jack Dorsey is in the White House, having a meeting with Trump. He’s sitting across the president, who’s actually the biggest celebrity endorser of his corporation. And Jack Dorsey and Twitter cannot implement any restrictions against white supremacists or racists.

DON CHEADLE: Because it might affect their big cash cow.

COHEN: And their only business model. They get rid of racists, they’re going to have less Twitter subscribers. We’re living in a dangerous society right now. We’re living in a society where the space that we grew up in — which is the idea that society is getting better, where people are equal despite their differences — that concept is being disintegrated. Democracy is being disintegrated, and that’s terrifying to me. And I’m going to say all of this with the caveat that I’m a comedian. I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but this is the stuff that’s going through my head. I didn’t mean to go on a tirade.

CHEADLE: Your tirade was necessary.