Hollywood director Adam McKay says former President Bill Clinton “killed” the Democratic Party.
The former “Saturday Night Live” writer and man behind “Vice” — an upcoming film on the life of former Vice President Dick Cheney — recently unloaded on Mr. Clinton. He told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Monday that time has not been kind to the 42nd commander in chief.
“I legitimately think Bill Clinton is one of the worst presidents in the modern age. I really do,” Mr. McKay told the entertainment magazine. “I think his presidency has aged so poorly: the deregulating of the banks. His personal life [in light of] the #MeToo movement. Like, shame on all of us. I at least was at SNL making fun of him with some cold opens. But man, they let that guy off the hook. I think he killed the Democratic Party. … I would say Jeb over Bill Clinton. I would choose Trump over Bush and Cheney.”
“Vice,” which comes out Christmas Day, stars actor Christian Bale in the lead role. The star told THR that he tried his best to strip his personal politics from the forefront of his mind while playing Mr. Cheney.
“I was completely always looking for the good, for the positive, for the understandable aspect of why he would’ve made the decisions that he made,” Mr. Bale said. “It was precisely to counter Adam and to counter what would be the assumed standpoint of the bunch of Hollywood liberals.”
Mr. McKay said that he was a supporter of Sen. Bernard Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016, although he ultimately decided to back former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the Vermont politician’s defeat.
“’All right. Let’s all be grown-ups,’” he said of the decision before him at the time. “’I now support Hillary Clinton.’ And once she was running against Trump, it was the easiest choice you’d ever have to make. I was very excited because I have two daughters, and we were going to have a woman president. And I just thought, ’That’s awesome!’”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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