‘Veep’ producer Frank Rich loves Donald Trump’s act
“Trump is an entertainer. Most of the candidates don’t even know what entertainment is.”
Lacey Terrell / HBO
The 2016 election is tailor-made for Frank Rich. A longtime culture and politics columnist at the New York Times and now a writer at New York magazine, Rich is also the executive producer of “Veep,” the HBO comedy that paints everyone in Washington as venal, stupid and unqualified.
“It’s the un-Aaron Sorkin,” Rich said on the latest episode of Re/code Media with Peter Kafka. “It’s the fight for power between people who have no power.”
“Veep,” which starts its new season on Sunday, deals with a (slightly) fictionalized Washington. On the new podcast, Rich had plenty to say about the current political landscape, including why he underestimated Bernie Sanders and why Hillary Clinton is pilloried for gaffes while Donald Trump revels in them.
Rich said there is a lesson to be found in Trump’s attitude and seeming authenticity, but that future candidates shouldn’t try to be Trump.
“Trump is an entertainer. Most of the candidates don’t even know what entertainment is,” Rich said. “Maybe the time has come for a campaign that is authentic, rather than faking authenticity.”
Rich also talked about why he left the New York Times in 2011 and what he, a former theater critic, thinks of Broadway in the age of “Hamilton.” Listen to or download the episode in the audio player above. And make sure to subscribe to Re/code Media with Peter Kafka on iTunes, which you can do right here. You can also find the show on Stitcher and TuneIn. We’ll have a new episode next Thursday.
Want more podcasts? Okay! Try Re/code Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, which you can subscribe to here. Or there’s Too Embarrassed to Ask, hosted by Kara and Lauren Goode from The Verge, which will have a new episode tomorrow. Click here to subscribe to Too Embarrassed to Ask on iTunes.
Finally, don’t miss Re/code Replay, where we’ve posted audio from Peter’s Code/Media 2016 conference. To subscribe to that, click right here.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
