The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election Is Straight Out of a Veep Episode—Really

In a 2016 episode of HBO’s Veep Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ candidate demands a recount in Nevada, eerily similar to the events of today’s 2020. U.S. presidential election. Scroll on for her reaction.

By Corinne Heller Nov 05, 2020 5:03 PMTags
Watch: Julia Louis-Dreyfus & Tony Hale's First Impressions of "Veep"

Did Veep foresee the chaos of the 2020 U.S. presidential election?

If you're a fan of the Emmy-winning HBO series, the recent real-life scenes of Republican and Democrat protestors chanting to either "stop counting votes" or "count all the votes" may look familiar.

On a season five Veep episode, which aired in 2016, presidential candidate Selena Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, demands and is granted a recount of votes cast in Nevada following unfavorable exit polls. On a following episode, her team runs into demonstrators protesting the move. Meyer's staff then proceed to stage their own counter protest.

Amid the recount, the votes in Nevada tilt heavily toward Meyer's rival, promoting her to have a meltdown. "You're going to cancel this recount like Anne Frank's Bat mitzvah," Louis-Dreyfus' character screams. "I'm tired of losing things!"

"I'm going to be President," Meyer says. "I'm going to be the first elected lady President. I'm going to have a lovely inauguration. Billy Joel is going to sing. So, you guys have to stop the recount."

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Stars Vote in the 2020 Presidential Election

Meyer's campaign's lawyer then requests to file a motion in court to exclude all pending ballots from the recount, and Meyer's team decides to order their planted protestors to change their chant from "count every vote" to "stop the count."

Hbo/Kobal/Shutterstock

On Wednesday, Louis-Dreyfus retweeted a fan who posted about Meyer's tantrum on showrunner David Mandel's hit. The person wrote, "Really@DavidHMandel...NEVADA??" Louis-Dreyfus commented, "Really."

Veep's concentration on Nevada is indeed very coincidental. As of the morning of Thursday, Nov. 5, while most votes have been tallied in all 50 states, the winner of Nevada's electoral votes remains unknown.

"Life imitates art and then beats the s--t out of it with a crowbar," Mandel tweeted on Wednesday night, adding, "And yet we never won a Golden Globe. #veep."

Check out E! News' 2020 presidential election coverage.