WASHINGTON (AP) — With President Joe Biden Away from the White House, Friday left it to another man with Oval Office experience to stand at the front of the Rose Garden and deliver an impassioned call to service.
Martin Sheen and other cast members “The West Wing” The hit drama series about a liberal president and his staff has been invited by the first lady. Jill Biden For an event to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary.
Shen urged the crowds to find something worth fighting for, “something deeply personal and uncompromising, something that can unite the will of the spirit with the work of the body.”
His voice and hands rose, and his cadence matched perfectly that of President Jed Bartlet, the character Sheen played for seven seasons.
“When we find that, we will have discovered the fire a second time, and we will be able to help lift this nation and all its people to a place where the heart is without fear, and the head is held high,” Shen said.
The West Wing remains a favorite of many people who now work in Washington, both liberals and conservatives. Among those seen in the Rose Garden are House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Joe Walsh, the Illinois congressman who was once a Tea Party supporter and is now a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump and a supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris.
When asked about his favorite character, Walsh replied, “I’m partial to Martin Sheen because I want to be president someday.” (Walsh ran and lost to Trump in the 2020 Republican primary.)
It was clear from the speeches and partisan touches that at least a few West Wing fans worked in the White House.
The U.S. Marine Corps Band played the show’s opening notes as Biden and the cast left the venue. There were references to “big blocks of cheese” — a tradition on the show that requires staff to meet strange or unconventional characters — and dialogues in which characters speak and walk through the halls at high speed.
Bartenders handed out bourbon and ginger beer cocktails they called “the jackal,” a reference to press secretary C.J. Craig’s lip-syncing dance in one famous episode.
Aaron Sorkin, the show’s creator, spoke after Sheen and made some real-world political references: Biden’s decision not to run for a second term after his disastrous debate performance. Sorkin was among the prominent Democrats who called on Biden to drop out, and he wrote a column for The New York Times with a possible “scenario” for Democrats to replace Biden as their nominee with a Republican, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
His column was published on July 21, hours before Biden announced his withdrawal.
“The reality is that West Wing moments do happen,” he told the first lady on Friday. “And Dr. Biden, we saw evidence of that on the morning of July 21st.”
Sorkin also honored cast members who attended the ceremony, including: Richard Schiff, who played communications director Toby Ziegler; Janel Moloney, who played assistant Donna Moss; and Dule Hill, who played assistant to the president Charlie Young.
He noted the absence of a few notable actors — Allison Janney, who played Craig, as well as Bradley Whitford and Robert Lowe — who he said were on set elsewhere.
“It seems the rest of us are out of work,” he added jokingly.
After the crowd laughed, a voice came from Sorkin’s right.
“Not yet!” Jill Biden said.
. “Professional creator. Lifelong thinker. Reader. Beer buff. Troublemaker. Evil problem solver.”