Actor Jeff Daniels unleashed his inner Will McAvoy to comment on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a two-minute clip staged to resemble the viral rant by his fictional news anchor from Aaron Sorkin’s HBO show The Newsroom.
Daniels played McAvoy as the outspoken liberal curmudgeon for three seasons, between 2012 and 2014. The opening scene of the first episode showed him lecturing a town hall of college students on why America was no longer the greatest country in the world.
Titled “The most honest three and a half minutes of television, EVER,” the clip received over 8 million views since the show’s June 2012 premiere.
Daniels was just nominated for a Tony award for his performance in Blackbird on Broadway. The actor appeared on the Bloomberg Politics TV show With All Due Respect on Tuesday, to talk his stage career and politics.
At some point during the recording, hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann re-created the interview from the opening scene of The Newsroom, asking a question about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Daniels obliged by getting back into character.
While Bloomberg titled the video “Jeff Daniels Goes 'Will McAvoy' on Trump,” the rant sounded more like a warning to the Clinton campaign.
“Yeah, Donald Trump is a fact-bending loose cannon who alienates mainstream voters with everything he says, but he gets constant media attention for free,” said Daniels-as-McAvoy. “There won’t be a day from now till November that Trump isn’t on every TV channel. And with a straight face, you’re going to tell me that electing a female president is unprecedented?”
He proceeded to list 22 countries that have elected female leaders, from Germany and Brazil to Denmark, Poland and Liberia.
“There’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that Trump is the best-case scenario for Hillary Clinton. 38 percent of the people gave her a favorable rating. 30 percent of the people said she’s honest and trustworthy. Just 22 percent of Democrats say they’re enthusiastic about her being the nominee,” Daniels rattled off, now completely in character. “Sure, she beats Trump in some categories: like millennials, who don’t even show up to vote. She also leads in number messages deleted on her personal email server. But that aside… When you ask what makes Trump the best-case scenario for Hillary, I don’t know what the f**** you’re talking about. His tiny hands?”
In the actual guest appearance on the Bloomberg show, Daniels described himself as a Clinton supporter, noting that he liked the ideas presented by Bernie Sanders but did not think the Vermont senator could get them through Congress.
“If Trump wins, it’s ‘good night and good luck’,” Daniels said, referring to the title of one of his movies.
While Trump has campaigned on the slogan “Make America Great Again,” the Clinton campaign has countered that with “America Is Already Great.”
In the original video, which ended up being far more popular than the actual show, McAvoy concludes his rant by saying, “the first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”