Veep Producer Pushes Back On ‘Assholes’ Using Show To Attack Harris: ‘The Selina-est Candidate is Donald Trump’

The executive producer of the HBO political satire Veep , David Mandel, slammed the “assholes” who draw unfavorable comparisons between the show’s inept fictional vice president Selina Meyer and Democratic presumptive nominee Kamala Harris .

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter , Mandel said that he gets “driven crazy” when online meme creators use the inept Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus , to try to “diminish” Harris’ image – “I hate that.”

Veep , which aired from 2012 to 2019, has seen a 353 percent resurgence in viewership since July 22, according to Luminate’s Streaming Viewership, as Harris’ candidacy profile rises. Mandel’s remarks also come a day after the show’s creator Armando Iannucci said that comparisons between Harris and Meyer were incidental.

In his interview, Mandel notes that while some fans celebrate the show’s humor, others use it to unfairly criticize Harris, reducing her achievements to mere “word salads.”

I get driven crazy when people try to use Veep to diminish her. I hate that. Yes, they are both women. Yes, they are both VPs being elevated. Selina was elevated into office; Kamala is being elevated to head of the ticket. There are some simple comparisons. But there are two types of people doing Veep memes right now: There are people really enjoying Selina’s moment of telling her staff that she’s running for president; there’s a joy there that’s fun and nice and celebratory. And then there are assholes who are using it differently. Surprise surprise, Kamala is a woman of color, and it seems like those people are using it as a simple way of insulting her. So I don’t like that part.

Mandel went on to discuss how Meyer’s shortcomings are much more easily aligned with Trump and his media appearances.

…back to the comment earlier about the people who are trying to hang Selina around Kamala’s neck: The Selina-est candidate is Donald Trump . Vain, worried about his looks, has a ridiculously better relationship with his body people than his own children, petty, vindictive, worries about his own money, doesn’t believe what he says, says whatever to get elected. Even Selina supported a woman’s right to chose — on that, she held firm. Somewhere in there, she had a moral compass … or some kind of something. Maybe a gyroscope.

As Harris campaigns in Milwaukee and prepares for potential debates against Trump, Mandel said that his team are on hand to lend a hand.

The Veep team is standing by and ready to do their part! I think there’s a generational thing going on. It’s so TikTok heavy. It’s beyond Twitter — we are in TikTok world. It’s kind of great. With the coconut thing — if you can have fun with that, my God, that’s great… We’ve been talking with our old friends at WisDems. We’re plotting some things. Things got a lot more interesting in the past couple days.