Aaron Sorkin Says If ‘The West Wing’ Was Made Today, Making Republicans ‘Reasonable’ Would be ‘Implausible’

In July on the same day President Joe Biden dropped out of the election, Aaron Sorkin released a poorly-timed op-ed that said Republican Mitt Romney should be nominated as the Democratic nominee at the party’s convention later this month. Later that day, Biden then endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place. Whoops.

He quickly retracted the statement upon Harris wading into the race, but if anyone is worried the acclaimed screenwriter behind “A Few Good Men” and “The Social Network” may have lost his sense of political awareness, he is now acknowledging how far afield Republicans have come since his beloved TV series “ The West Wing ” first came out. As reported on by The Hollywood Reporter at an event promoting the upcoming book, “What’s Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service,” Sorkin discussed how he is often asked whether a version of “The West Wing” would work today. “Honestly, I think it would for roughly the same reason it worked when it did, which is that, first of all, it was a good show, just good stories well told by a great group of people,” he said to the crowd at the Skirball Cultural Center.

“But by and large, in popular culture, our leaders are portrayed either as Machiavellian or as dolts, right? It’s either a ‘House of Cards’ or ‘Veep . ‘ The idea behind ‘The West Wing’ was what if they were as competent and as dedicated as the doctors and nurses o.