--- title: Jeff Daniels: Watch Him Go Full Newsroom on 2016 Election description: Will McAvoy from the HBO show 'The Newsroom' is back with another epic rant on the state of American politics and the 2016 election. canonical: https://time.com/4325955/jeff-daniels-newsroom-2016-election/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-11T14:03:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:27:15.090Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch Jeff Daniels Go Full 'Newsroom' on the 2016 Election og:description: Will McAvoy is back og:url: https://time.com/4325955/jeff-daniels-newsroom-2016-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt049a2d34b109fbdc/698892b25f570f1923b20e07/jeff-daniels-the-newsroom-2016-election-rant.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 2016 Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Reception - Portrait Studio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Jeff Daniels Go Full 'Newsroom' on the 2016 Election twitter:description: Will McAvoy is back twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt049a2d34b109fbdc/698892b25f570f1923b20e07/jeff-daniels-the-newsroom-2016-election-rant.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Jeff Daniels Go Full 'Newsroom' on the 2016 Election by [Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly May 11, 2016 2:03 PM UTC  Actor Jeff Daniels poses for a portrait at the 2016 Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Reception on May 4, 2016 in New York City. Actor Jeff Daniels poses for a portrait at the 2016 Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Reception on May 4, 2016 in New York City.Larry Busacca—Getty Images Portrait for Tony Awards Productions by [Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly May 11, 2016 2:03 PM UTC What kind of day has it been? The kind where Jeff Daniels is asked to resurrect his character from _The Newsroom_ to talk about the 2016 presidential election. In a video produced by Bloomberg Television for _With All Due Respect_ with hosts Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, Daniels embodied _News Night_ anchor Will McAvoy to recreate his first scene as the character and pontificate on the expected presidential battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Asked what makes Trump the “best-case scenario” for Clinton, Daniels first jokes that Trump could donate to her campaign. Pushed to answer the actual question, however, the actor turned full McAvoy: “He’s not the best-case scenario, John, that’s my answer. Donald Trump is a fact-bending loose cannon who alienates mainstream voters with everything he says. But he gets constant media attention for free. There won’t be a day from now until November when Trump isn’t on every TV channel.” As for Clinton? “There’s absolutely no evidence that Trump is the best-case scenario for Hillary Clinton. 38 percent of the people gave her a favorable rating. 30 percent of the people said she’s honest and trustworthy. Just 22 percent of Democrats say they’re enthusiastic about her being the nominee,” Daniels said, his voice now in the familiar tone of McAvoy. “Sure, she beats Trump in some categories: like millennials, who don’t even show up to vote. She also leads in number messages deleted on her personal email server. But that aside. When you ask what makes Trump the best-case scenario for Hillary, I don’t know what the f— you’re talking about. His tiny hands?” Watch the [original scene from the pilot of _The Newsroom_ here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqOYBabXmA), and check out Daniels’ peek at what season 4 of _The Newsroom_ could have looked like in the current political climate below. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/11/jeff-daniels-newsroom-will-mcavoy-returns) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4325955/jeff-daniels-newsroom-2016-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4325955/jeff-daniels-newsroom-2016-election/"},"headline":"Watch Jeff Daniels Go Full 'Newsroom' on the 2016 Election","datePublished":"2016-05-11T14:03:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:27:15.090Z","description":"Will McAvoy is back","url":"https://time.com/4325955/jeff-daniels-newsroom-2016-election/","keywords":["celebrities","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt049a2d34b109fbdc/698892b25f570f1923b20e07/jeff-daniels-the-newsroom-2016-election-rant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Christopher Rosen / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt049a2d34b109fbdc/698892b25f570f1923b20e07/jeff-daniels-the-newsroom-2016-election-rant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2016 Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Reception - Portrait Studio","caption":"2016 Tony Awards Meet The Nominees Press Reception - Portrait Studio","creditText":"Larry Busacca—Getty Images Portrait for Tony Awards Productions","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/celebrities/","name":"celebrities"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4325955/jeff-daniels-newsroom-2016-election/","name":"Watch Jeff Daniels Go Full 'Newsroom' on the 2016 Election"}}]}] ```