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The Simpsons writer Al Jean has responded to the suggestion that the show “predicted” Kamala Harris as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
On Sunday (21 July), Joe Biden, 81, withdrew from the 2024 US presidential race amid growing pressure to bow out due to concerns over his health and age.
In his statement announcing the news, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, with the former US senator emerging as one of the frontrunners to run against Donald Trump.
Many people have claimed that The Simpsons predicted Harris’s potential presidential run.
The season 11 episode, titled “Bart to the Future”, which sees Lisa become president, previously went viral in 2021 when Harris was sworn in as the first female vice president of the United States.
Fans spotted significant similarities between the politician’s outfit and Lisa’s outfit in the episode, in which she wore pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, and a purple blazer.
Now, stalwart Simpsons writer Jean has responded to the news of Harris’s prospective presidential run.
Posting on X/Twitter, Jean shared a side-by-side compilation of Lisa and Harris in the same outfit.
“The Simpsons ‘prediction’ I’m proud to be a part of,” Jean, 63, wrote in the caption to his post.
This is far from the first time that the animated series appears to have “predicted” significant political events, such as Trump’s election to US president and the 2021 pro-Trump riots in Capitol Hill.
Jean served as joint showrunner on The Simpsons alongside Mike Reiss throughout the third and fourth seasons of the series, re-joining the show to become its sole showrunner from 2001 (season 13) onwards.
Several celebrities including Robert De Niro, Lizzo, and Barbara Streisand have reacted to Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race – and Harris’s nomination.
While it remains uncertain whether Harris will actually become the Democratic nominee, she has said that it is her “intention to earn and win this nomination”.
