Prominent Democrats praised actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ biting performance as emcee during the final night of the party’s nominating convention on Thursday.
The Emmy award-winning star of HBO’s “Veep” sprinkled her hosting duties with intermittent jabs at President Donald Trump, skewering the White House throughout the two hours of primetime programming.
Louis-Dreyfus told viewers of the virtual proceedings that she “couldn’t be prouder” to be a “patriotic Democrat — or as Donald Trump will call me in a tweet tomorrow, ‘a washed-up, horse-face, no-talent has-been with low ratings.’”
“Well with all due respect sir,” she added. “It takes one to know one.”
Louis-Dreyfus’ riffs represented a departure from the more serious showings of the previous three nights of emcees — actresses Eva Longoria Bastón, Tracee Ellis Ross and Kerry Washington — and they mostly made reference to various gaffes and controversies of the current administration.
Louis-Dreyfus remarked that she was eager to host the event in part to remind Americans that Biden “knows how to read.” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany memorably insisted in June that Trump “does read.”
Following a segment focused on Biden’s faith, Louis-Dreyfus invoked the Trump administration’s violent dispersal of largely peaceful protesters outside the White House in order to pose for a photo opportunity with a Bible outside a nearby church.
“Just remember,” she said, “Joe Biden goes to church so regularly that he doesn’t even need tear gas and a bunch of federalized troops to help him get there.”
And as Louis-Dreyfus urged viewers to text a code to Biden’s campaign to receive voter information, she poked fun at Trump’s boasts that he had “aced” a cognitive exam conducted at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“Simply text ‘Vote’ to 30330 to learn more,” she said. “30330. It’s actually not that hard to remember. Watch. Person, woman, man, camera, TV, 30330. Anyone can do it.”
In a more serious vein, Louis-Dreyfus talked about her 2017 battle with breast cancer and said that Biden, who had lost his son Beau Biden to cancer two years earlier, called her to offer support. “His real warmth and kindness on that call, man, I got to say, it made me cry,” she said.
Democrats cheered Louis-Dreyfus’ jokes on Twitter, with Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta pondering whether she could “get an Emmy for hosting a virtual convention?”
Robby Mook, the manager of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, deemed the final night of convention programming to be “the best yet. And @OfficialJLD is crushing it.”
“Didn’t know how much I needed @officialJLD, who is killing it tonight!” wrote former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards. “This is the laughter we all need right now!”
From “veep to veep,” Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris tweeted at Louis-Dreyfus, “you’re crushing it!”
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