'Veep' Fans Point out Scene That Seemingly Predicted 2020 Election Count

While there have been dozens of moments during the past four years that seemed similar to the [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

While there have been dozens of moments during the past four years that seemed similar to the craziness depicted in HBO's Emmy-winning series Veep, the events playing out with the 2020 presidential election count are really like a story on the series. Fans quickly pointed out on Twitter that the crazy events that happened in Veep Season 5 are very similar to the contradictory calls from President Donald Trump's supporters to stop counting in one state and keep counting in another. Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus recognized the shocking similarity as well.

The similarity between real life and the show's plot points is scary. In Season 5, Selina Meyer (Louis-Dreyfus) was running to win her first full term as president after previously taking over the Oval Office when the previous president resigned. The show's writers decided to depict the insanity of a possible 269-269 Electoral College tie, where neither candidate gets the 270 votes to win. In the episode "Nev-AD-a," Meyer thinks Nevada should have a recount because its electoral votes would give her the win, notes the Daily Beast.

In "Nev-AD-a" and "Mother," protesters supporting Meyer start chanting "count every vote," but soon start chanting "stop counting the votes" when it looks like Meyer would lose. When it becomes clear the absentee military ballots will not help her, Meyer suddenly tells her team to "cancel this recount like Anne Frank's Bat mitzvah." Meyer's team also goes to court, where they try to exclude pending ballots from the recount.

In the real world, Trump supporters tried to stop vote counting in Michigan after it appeared Democratic candidate Joe Biden took the lead there. However, in Arizona, where Biden's apparent lead was shrinking, Trump supporters called for more votes to be counted. In another twist, Nevada still has not been called for either Trump or Biden, although Biden is leading in the state by about 22,000 votes, the Associated Press reports.

"Life imitates art and then beats the s— out of it with a crowbar," Veep writer David Mandel tweeted. Louis-Dreyfus also saw a fan pointing out the similarities, adding, "Really." One fan said Veep is now the "new Simpsons of electoral predictions." Fans can see how the electoral tie played out on the show, which is streaming in full on HBO Max.

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