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Watch Jeff Daniels’ Character, Will McAvoy, Slam Donald Trump [Video]

By Nick Younker
Published on: 07:09 PST, May 11, 2016

Jeff Daniels was thought to be done with his famous character, Will McAvoy, from the hit HBO series The Newsroom. But there was one last thing that Daniels wanted to do with McAvoy, considering the current political climate that is going on right now. He had to weigh in on Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton in the November general election for president.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the hosts actually addressed Jeff Daniels as himself, but Daniels replied to their questions with the strong sentiments of Will McAvoy and let out some answers that echoed his famous speech on The Newsroom, according to Entertainment Weekly.

Something in particular to note about how Jeff Daniels handled his character of Will McAvoy is that even though he is a fictional news anchor, he was highly revered on his cable news network and the characters in the show saw him as a strong and impartial leader to the news.

So when Jeff Daniels was asked to weigh on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, it was Will McAvoy who responded to the question with the same directed rhetoric that he used on that legendary first episode of The Newsroom.

“There’s absolutely no evidence that Trump is the best-case scenario for Hillary Clinton. Thirty-eight percent of the people gave her a favorable rating. Thirty 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 told Bloomberg, seemingly in character as Will McAvoy. “Sure, she beats Trump in some categories: like millennials, who don’t even show up to vote. She also leads in number of 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?”

One thing that Jeff Daniels (Will McAvoy) is most famous for is the very first scene from the pilot episode of The Newsroom. That scene was when he was attending a seminar at a college as an onstage guest, among others in the media and political industry. In that scene, a young and beautiful college girl asked the people on stage to describe what makes America great, which was in front of a packed audience.

In that scene, the others on the stage made somewhat cliché remarks, which included “freedom,” “diversity” and “opportunity.” McAvoy tried to sidestep the question by saying “the New York Jets,” but the moderator was not going to let it go and that is when McAvoy (Daniels) let loose that America was no longer the greatest country in the world, drawing parallels to other countries that have freedom and opportunity. He also let loose on the young girl that asked the question, responding to her with an extreme vulgarity that attacked her statistical intelligence.

That scene from The Newsroom was indeed a quite shocking moment for the show and opened it up with a bang. But it also used real life events and politics to mirror what was happening in the world through the eyes of the fictional newsroom.

Jeff Daniels character of Will McAvoy was the main news anchor and single most draw for the national cable news network. He led a team of journalists, producers and photographers on missions, both domestic and abroad, to bring the world the news in this fast paced, thrilling drama series.

When Jeff Daniels went in for the interview with Bloomberg, he was initially there to promote his appearance in a Broadway play. It was only later when he broke into character as Will McAvoy. But before he did that, he also weighed in on Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders, giving sweeping endorsements for both Democratic Presidential candidates.

[Image via HBO]

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