The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin ventured a guess as to how the TV president he created, Martin Sheen’s President Josiah Bartlet, would vote in this year’s real-life presidential election — and the screenwriter made clear that Bartlet’s vote would not be for Republican Donald Trump.
Sorkin was joined by West Wing cast members Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, Janel Maloney, Dulé Hill, Joshua Malina and Melissa Fitzgerald for a reunion at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas, where he shared his thoughts on the contentious real-life presidential battle between Trump and presumptive Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I have to tell you, and I suppose it is unfair for me to inject my personal feelings into it, [because] this is about the West Wing, this isn’t about me,” Sorkin said in an interview with USA Today.
“I believe we’re in a terribly dangerous situation right now, where a person — I’m not talking about his racist statements — he doesn’t know anything,” the 55-year-old Oscar-winning screenwriter said. “It feels to me like he’s simply… Mrs. Clinton uses a gentle word when she says he doesn’t have the temperament to be in the White House.”
Sorkin, whose HBO show The Newsroom was often accused of being biased against conservatives, and in particular, against the Tea Party, went on to say that Bartlet would likely endorse the “sober-thinking” Hillary Clinton.
“Even if you don’t agree with Hillary Clinton, at least she’s a sober-thinking person,” he added. “And at least you’re okay with her being near the football. All Kim Jong-un has to do is troll [Trump’s] Twitter account and terrible things will happen, I’m not joking around… so of course Bartlet would endorse Hillary Clinton if he were a real person.”
Sorkin is currently at work on his directorial debut, Molly’s Game, and is also working on NBC’s live adaptation of his hit 1992 film A Few Good Men.
He told USA Today that he still hasn’t seen the last three seasons of West Wing, which were written by other writers after he exited the show following the fourth season.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum