Aaron Sorkin Calls Biden’s Exit from Presidential Race a ‘West Wing’ Moment

Art imitates life according to West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin!

On Friday, Sept. 20, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden hosted a West Wing 25th Anniversary event at the White House Rose Garden. PEOPLE was on hand as some of the cast of the political series (minus Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney and Rob Lowe) were honored. 

As Biden, 73, approached the podium to address her guests, the West Wing theme song began to play. 

“We just came from the Oval but even though [President] Joe [Biden], Joe is away hosting leaders of Australia and India and Japan in Delaware, he wanted to make sure that President Bartlet and his staff had a chance to see the Oval Office again,” she said. 

Dr. Biden then introduced Martin Sheen, who portrayed the idealistic Democratic president Josiah Bartlet on the Emmy-winning television series. 

Sheen, 84, began his speech by thanking Dr. Biden, saying he was “given this opportunity rare enough these days to morph once again into the wonderful character that changed my life and a lot of others as well.”

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Next up was West Wing creator and writer Sorkin, 63, who gave his remarks. 

“Our cast will live on as one of the best in the history of television,” he said. 

The series, which debuted on NBC on Sept. 22, 1999, ran for 7 seasons until 2006 and picked up 26 Emmys along the way. 

Sorkin shared that Lowe, 60, (Sam Seaborn); Janney, 64, (C.J. Cregg); and Whitfield, also 64, (Josh Lyman) weren’t able to make the White House gathering because they were on-set. 

“The rest of us are apparently unemployed,” Sorkin joked, as Dr. Biden playfully teased, “Not yet.”

Some of the show’s more dramatic fictionalized moments included President Bartlet being investigated for not revealing his multiple sclerosis diagnosis, to a national security leak surrounding a secret military space shuttle.

“West Wing moments do happen and Dr. Biden and we saw proof of that on the morning of July 21st,” Sorkin also said, referring to the date President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race. 

Sheen, Janney, Janel Moloney, Dulé Hill and Richard Schiff recently had a West Wing reunion when the cast members joined together to present the award for outstanding drama series at the 76th annual Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 15. 

While onstage, Schiff, 69, briefly weighed in on how their show would have had a field day with today’s political climate had it still been airing. 

“Today, where storylines can be plucked right off the news, storylines that writers would have deemed a bit far-fetched, if not utterly ridiculous, 25 years ago,” he said.

“Our political landscape has shifted dramatically in recent years, but two things have not changed: the importance of everyone making sure to be registered and to vote,” Moloney, 54, added.