Jerry Springer Wouldn't Let Trump On His Show

Late on Monday after the debate, Jerry Springer tweeted out one of the ultimate burns of the election so far. "Hillary Clinton belongs in the White House. Donald Trump belongs on my show," he sent to his 77,000 followers. But actually, Donald Trump isn't even good enough to be on Springer. You surely remember The Jerry Springer Show's choice topics, which ranged from paternity tests to "my grandma is a pimp." Well, according to Springer himself, Trump doesn't have what it takes.

Why? Nope, not because he's a member of the elite. He's actually not "authentic" enough. At least, that's what Springer told BuzzFeed News on Wednesday. Here's the full explanation:

The people on our show aren’t making up lies. They’re upset. They’re angry. That’s totally different than Trump. He’s not coming on the show because he’s angry. He’s coming on the show because he wants to be the leader. He’s got this ego, this narcissism. He just wants to be the leader of the world. He’s not unhappy with his life. All he does is brag about how rich he is and how many hotels and golf courses he has. This is not a guy who’s trying to fix his life. He obviously doesn’t particularly care about other people.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? But he might be onto something. After all, Springer knows about both talk shows and politics. Before moving to the world of trashy daytime television, he was the mayor of Cincinnati for two consecutive terms, ending in a run for governor. He, of course, lost and moved on to television, first anchoring the local news. From there, he migrated to his own talk show.

Springer said that Trump's rise isn't a shock. Someone like him was bound to take the reigns of celebrity from entertainment or sports and try their luck at politics, especially with so much anti-government sentiment. He explained to BuzzFeed:

The only two areas outside of politics that you can be well-known in America are either sports or entertainment. Athletes are too young to run for president. We should have seen it coming that eventually we would have someone run for president who was from the field of entertainment and was anti-government.

He says no one knew it would be Trump specifically, but that you could predict "someone like him" would do just this. The upside, Springer, argued is that if Trump loses, it should save us from similar candidacies, at least for a while. "I think they’ll suddenly be a reaction the other way. They’ll be a move to get a grown-up to be president again," he told BuzzFeed.

Springer is a Clinton supporter. He went to the Democratic Convention in July, and has given interviews to the press since then about why he thinks that Trump would make an inappropriate president. "I have no ax to grind with him. I just don’t want him running for president. This country is too important," Springer told Politico.

Ultimately, he thinks Clinton will win, but nothing is certain. "People are angry, and he’s the guy with the baseball bat. No one is looking to him for answers," Springer told BuzzFeed. That may be true, but as Springer hopes, cooler heads may prevail.