Former GOP lawmaker Joe Walsh on Saturday told CNN that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen tricked him into endorsing a fake Israeli defense program that supposedly armed preschool children with weapons to defend themselves against terrorists.
Cohen, whose new Showtime series “Who Is America?” premiers Sunday, has tricked several conservatives to appear on his show, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
“He’s a funny guy because he gets people to say stupid things,” Walsh, a radio host and former congressman from Illinois who also has a show on Newsmax TV. “He gets people to say stupid things because he lies to them.”
Walsh told CNN he was invited to receive an award for his pro-Israel views in Washington, D.C., and that the group paid for his travel and hotel room. While there, he sat down with a documentary crew who asked him to endorse several Israeli innovations.
They had Walsh read off a teleprompter about a 4-year-old child in Israel who, “when a terrorist entered his classroom, somehow he grabbed the terrorist’s gun and held the terrorist at bay,” he said, adding, “And that was an example of how Israel trains and arms preschool kids on how to use firearms, and boy shouldn’t we do that in America?”
CNN host Michael Smerconish asked him if a red flag went off, and Walsh answered: “Well, this is kind of crazy, but it is Israel and Israel is strong on defense.”
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.