This week some of the stars of the political drama The West Wing celebrated the series’ 25th anniversary, and they couldn’t have scored a better venue.
In a small ceremony held in the Rose Garden at the White House on Friday, first lady Jill Biden welcomed the cast and creator who brought the fictional president Jed Bartlet and his administration to the small screen.
The event began with a short address by the first lady, who passed along a message of welcome from President Biden, who is hosting a diplomatic summit at his home in Wilmington.
“Even though 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.
“I’m so grateful to everyone on stage for taking the time to be here because your work inspired so many to step forward and serve our country.”
The first lady was followed by President Bartlet himself, or rather the actor who played him, Martin Sheen, who passionately recited from a poem by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, which conveyed patriotic themes:
“Where the heart is without fear,
And the head is held high
where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depths of truth
And tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sands of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action into that heaven of freedom
Dear father
Let our country awake.”
In addition to Sheen, actors Richard Schiff, Dulé Hill, Janel Moloney, Emily Procter, Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack were in attendance, as was director and executive producer Thomas Schlamme, according to the White House.
So too was West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, who closed out the ceremony, saying his show about a principled fictional U.S. president was “idealistic, aspirational and romantic.”
“Over the years, I’ve noticed that during times of peak political tension, pundits will warn us not to expect a ‘West Wing moment,’” said Sorkin. “They mean not to expect a selfless act of statesmanship. Not to expect anyone to put country first. Don’t expect anyone to swing for the fences or reach for the stars.”
However, Sorkin went on to say that “West Wing moments” sometimes do happen.
“We saw proof of that on the morning of July 21,” Sorkin said, referencing the day that President Biden announced his decision not to run for a second term.
“That was the kind of thing we tell stories about.”