Is Trump America’s destiny? Jerry Springer visited HuffPost Live on Wednesday, February 10, and discussed why he thinks the rise of presidential candidate Donald Trump’s popularity was “inevitable.”
“For the last 35 to 36 years, a generation of Americans have been raised on the notion that government is evil … it is inevitable that eventually someone would rise up to be anti-government,” the talk show host and former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati explained. “The fact that you get someone who has never been in government, is in entertainment and therefore is famous, running for president and doing well, should have been totally predictable — it was inevitable that we would get a Donald Trump, it’s just none of us saw it coming.”
The presidential election is not the only issue the host spoke passionately about. The Jerry Springer Show, which debuted in 1991, is probably best known for its excessive fighting and wacky stories. Springer said that since the program’s debut Americans have become “more open and freer.”
“The first year we were in Cincinnati, I did a show on interracial dating and there were protestors outside the building. Now, of course we now have a president that is the product of an interracial marriage,” he said. “I still think we have a long way to go on the issue of race … We don’t understand why someone of a different nationality or someone of a different race or someone of a different religion, why they could feel hurt. I think we still need to get sensitivities on that issue.”
Because of all the types of personalities exposed and issues hashed out on the show, there are bound to be complaints from different groups of people. Thinking about these complaints, Springer brushed them aside. “Whatever it is, the show is about dysfunction, so whoever is on the show, you know, is going to be dysfunctional,” the talk show host claimed. “Everyone always thinks that the dysfunction is someplace else. But, if you’re on the show, there’s something crazy going on in your life and that’s what the show is about.”
Springer has seen some pretty horrific moments in the last 25 years of the show. He recalled one particular guest who cut off his penis so that another man would “lose interest in him.” “The story, I remember, was horrible,” Springer recalled. “I said to him, ‘Why don’t you just change your number?’ You know, get a new address. I mean, just what the heck!”
Have a question you’d like to ask a celebrity? Check out who will be appearing on HuffPost Live and submit your question to be asked live on-air!
