'Veep' producer: Nothing funny about 'madman' Donald Trump
Veep's crew does not take kindly to the Presidential campaign of Republican Donald Trump.
The HBO political comedy won best comedy at the Emmy Awards Sunday, giving executive producer David Mandel a bully pulpit to lay into Trump backstage.
"It’s a nightmare, this campaign," Mandel said to reporters of the Trump effort, echoing harsh anti-Trump comments from another producer, Transparent's Jill Soloway. "I find the level of discourse in this campaign to be horrific."
'Transparent' creator Jill Soloway calls Trump 'inheritor to Hitler'
Mandel added that Trump's many high-profile statements make writing a political show like Veep, which follows a fictitious President, even harder.
On Friday, Trump said Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's bodyguards should disarm "to see what happens" to Clinton.
"There are days where things we think of pale in comparison to that madman threatening Hillary Clinton not once, but twice," said Mandel. "If I wrote that I’d get fired by HBO."
Onstage, star (and five-time winner) Julia Louis-Dreyfus said that in light of current events, "Our show started out as a political satire and now feels like a sobering documentary,"
"It makes comedy way tougher. It’s so hard because there are people that don’t want to laugh about this stuff," Mandel added. "It makes coming up with ideas and stories that much harder. It’s a challenge. It’s been a crazy year of politics."
The solution, Mandel said, was for people to vote in the November election.
"No matter who you are, your vote counts," he said. "If you feel like you are not part of the system, then vote."
When asked by a reporter about support from Trump by white supremacists, Mandel responded by sending out a special message to "millennials" who might be considering a third-party candidate as an alternative to the two parties.
Mandel recalled when Ralph Nader ran for President in 2000, which helped George W. Bush defeat Al Gore in the Presidential election.
"The last time a third-party candidate got a lot of votes, we ended up with George W. Bush and an Iraqi war that should never have happened," said Mandel. "So I would simply say to vote for one of the candidates of the two parties. And let’s make sure we avoid some white supremacists. It’s not that hard."
