The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin wrote an impassioned op-ed endorsing a shock candidate to replace President Joe Biden — before doing a bizarre 180.
The 63-year-old writer bizarrely argued that Democrats should select a Republican candidate to defeat former President Donald Trump and suggested that Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah would be the perfect choice.
“Nominating Romney would be a clear demonstration that what we say is what we say – a clear and forceful demonstration that this election is not about what our elections are usually about, but about preventing a deranged man from taking power,” Sorkin said. he wrote in an essay for the New York Times on Sunday.
‘Romney could argue that Democrats are putting country before party and announce his bipartisan Cabinet nominees at the convention as well.’
But after Biden, 81, announced he was dropping out of the race just hours later and announced he was endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Sorkin walked back what he called his “pitch to the writers room.”
West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin made a bizarre suggestion about who should replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee
“I take back everything I said. Harris for America!” Sorkin wrote in an email to West Wing star Joshua Harris, asking him to Share the statement about X.
Her publicist Jodie Oriol later confirmed to Variety that the statement was true.
But in his op-ed, Sorkin argued that “there is no Democrat who is polling significantly better than Biden.”
He compared Biden’s presidency to that of his fictional president, Jed Bartlet, who decides to run for reelection after it is revealed that he had multiple sclerosis and hid it from the general public, much like concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity.
However, if on the show polls suggested that The West Wing president was in danger of losing to a “dangerous jerk with an observable psychiatric disorder” and a “dumper of ignorance” — as Sorkin suggested Biden is — the writer would have him drop out of the race.
Sorkin suggested in an op-ed for the New York Times that Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah should be the Democratic nominee.
After Biden announced he would drop out of the 2024 presidential race, Sorkin retracted his endorsement
Sorkin went on to imagine a scenario in which former President Barack Obama, who defeated Romney in 2012, would take the stage at the Democratic National Convention to “full force” endorse his former opponent and “remind us, once again, that we are not red states and blue states, we are the United States.”
“The choice is between Donald Trump and non-Trump, and the non-Trump candidate needs only one qualification: win enough votes from a cross-section of Americans to close off the former president’s Electoral College path back to power,” Sorkin concluded.
The essay sparked strong reactions on social media on Sunday, as many ridiculed Sorkin for suggesting Democrats nominate a Republican.
Journalist Seamus Malekafzali I affirm that The suggestion was “outrageously stupid even by his standards,” and journalist Imani Gandy saying which is ‘the height of West Wing-style brain rot.’
Podcaster Stephen L Miller also called Sorkin’s endorsement of Romney is “the funniest thing that’s happened in this whole ordeal.”
‘They demonized him, they called him a murderer, they hired a debate moderator to help Obama and now they say… Yeah, we should nominate that guy.
“God, this is so much fun.”
He compared real life to his television show, which featured a fictional president running for re-election after it was revealed he was hiding multiple sclerosis from the public.
But Biden surprisingly announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the 2024 presidential election.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” the president wrote in a letter posted to his X account on Sunday.
“And while it has been my intention to seek re-election,” he continued, “I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to step down and focus exclusively on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
He continued saying endorse Harris to succeed him as the Democratic candidate to take office Donald Trump in November.
Harris later released her own statement, in which she appeared to accept Biden’s endorsement as a de facto primary victory and said she would lead the party to victory in November.
“With this selfless and patriotic act, President Biden is doing what he has done throughout his lifetime of service: putting the American people and our country above all else,” he wrote a few hours after Biden ended his campaign.
“I am honored to have the President’s endorsement and I intend to win this nomination,” she added before listing her credentials to obtain her boss’s approval.
“Over the past year, I have traveled across the country, speaking to Americans about the clear choice in this momentous election,” he wrote. “And that is what I will continue to do in the days and weeks ahead. I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party – and unite our nation – to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda.”
“There are 107 days until the elections. Together we will fight. And together we will win.”
President Joe Biden has endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris to take over his post
Following this, Democrats received an avalanche of grassroots donations.
As a result, Democrats received an avalanche of grassroots donations.
Just an hour after Biden made his surprise announcement, Democrats raised more than $5 million in donations, according to ActBlue tracking.
Within three hours on Sunday afternoon, the flood of donations had reached nearly $16 million online, and more money was still coming in. In just 20 minutes, another $1 million was raised on Sunday evening.
Within four hours, the total had risen to nearly $25 million raised. Within six hours, it had reached $35 million raised. Within seven hours, the figure had reached nearly $50 million.
However, just because Biden has endorsed Harris to take his seat does not mean she will automatically receive the nomination.
Biden has yet to secure the Democratic Party nomination and there is still little time left to replace Harris before next month’s Democratic National Convention and avoid an open convention.
The party’s nominating event will take place August 19-22 in Chicago, Illinois.
Harris now appears set to top the Democratic ticket at the end of that week, after primary voters cast their ballots for Biden to be the nominee.