Armando Iannucci, the creator of the television show Veep, issued a warning about the 2024 presidential election in an opinion piece published by The New York Times.
President Joe Biden on Sunday announced that he is ending his presidential campaign following weeks of pressure from other Democrats amid concerns about his age and polls showing him trailing former President Donald Trump.
Democrats quickly coalesced around Harris to become their nominee. While she has polled similarly to Biden in the past, Democrats believe she will be able to run a robust campaign to win over undecided voters and build enthusiasm among the party’s voter base.
Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket has sparked comparisons to Veep, in which the fictional Vice President Selina Meyer, portrayed by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, won her party’s presidential nomination after the incumbent president stepped aside from the campaign.
Iannucci acknowledged the comparisons in the Times opinion article published on Friday, responding to journalists who have asked him if he is “pleased” with the comparisons between reality and his show.
“This is the first time I’m setting out a definitive answer to that question, and the answer is: No, I’m not. I’m extremely worried!” he wrote.
He continued: “Not about Ms. Harris. I’m sure she’ll inject much-needed sharpness into the campaign. What worries me is that politics has become so much like entertainment that the first thing we do to make sense of the moment is to test it against a sitcom.”
Iannucci wrote that he fears the United States has “crossed some threshold where the choreographed image or manufactured narrative becomes the only reality we have left” and that the state of the election is “madder than ‘Veep and deadly serious.”
“These are real events, not melodramatic fictions, and they have a real impact on our lives. Depending on who wins, either we’ll continue our attempts to halt global warming, or we’ll sit back and melt in our sleep. America’s legal and electoral systems will either function on behalf of its people or continue to be shaped in the image of those who can afford the most annoyingly persistent lawyer,” he said.
Newsweek reached out to Harris’ campaign via email for comment.
Will literally never get over the fact that we’re living through the plot of Veep in real time pic.twitter.com/3Y6OTfOXeE
— Sophie Ross (@SophRossss) July 21, 2024
Several Veep clips have gone viral on social media this week, including one in which Meyer announces to her team that the president isn’t going to run for a second term. The video went viral after it was posted by NBC News reporter Sahil Kapur, who captioned it, “Veep is a documentary.”
“I’m not leaving; POTUS is leaving. He’s not going to run for a second term. I’m gonna run. I’m gonna run for president,” Meyer says as her team celebrates.
In another video, posted by X user Sophie Ross, Meyer says to her assistant, played by Tony Hale, “Um, I’m going to be president.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
