The man behind TV’s “All in the Family” says presidential contender Donald Trump resembles one of the beloved sitcom’s most controversial characters.
“He is Archie Bunker,” Norman Lear said late Thursday, according to Deadline. “I think of Donald Trump as the middle finger of the American right hand. Why is this happening? Whether you’re Republican or a Democrat, can we all seriously agree this is bad for America?”
{mosads}Lear said the Republican Party’s direction is mostly to blame for Trump’s popularity with GOP voters, however.
“I think this is a case of the American people saying, ‘this is the kind of leadership you are giving us,’ because they didn’t invent him,” he told listeners at the Writers Guild gala.
“The Republican Party handed it to them. I think they are saying, ‘screw you.’ I don’t think they are married to the notion that he is going to be a great president.”
Chuck Lorre, another veteran sitcom creator, refused to comment on the GOP’s de facto presidential nominee Thursday night.
“Let me just point out ‘Two and a Half Men’ beat ‘The Apprentice’ regularly in the ratings,” he said, jokingly comparing his comedy with Trump’s reality television competition.
Lear has previously compared Trump to Bunker, the blue-collar, politically incorrect protagonist of 1970s hit “All in the Family.” The TV producer said late last year Trump would probably resonate with the outrageously right-wing character.
“Would Archie Bunker be a supporter?” he asked The Daily Beast. “Yes, he would be saying, ‘take that.’ He’d find a way of blaming the left for Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a fool and an assh—e. It’s a ‘f-ck you’ to the establishment. It isn’t a heartfelt belief in this guy.”
