Festivus Creator Slams Rand Paul for Co-Opting Holiday: ‘I Hate The Guy’

Seinfeld scriptwriter Don O’Keefe–whose father Daniel O’Keefe inspired the show’s secular holiday celebration Festivus–aired his grievance against Rand Paul Wednesday, blasting the Republican presidential candidate for co-opting his family holiday.

“I hate the guy,” O’Keefe said in an interview on HuffPost Live. “I think he’s some form of lizard that’s crawled into a suit and somehow been allowed in the Senate.”

“My father was a strong, sort of 1950s-era liberal Democrat and he despised the reactionary nature of today’s Republican Party,” O’Keefe explained. “I lost it when I saw that Rand Paul––whom my father actually did strongly dislike before he died––was using my holiday to make warmed-over, 10-year-old talking points.”

O’Keefe launched into a retelling of his attempts to troll Paul’s Festivus tweets, noting that he wanted reignite the media storm around the presidential candidate’s plagiarism. “So I tried to troll him, but it didn’t work, either because he’s too stupid or too smart,” O’Keefe said.

“But yeah, I strongly dislike it when elected officials with whom I strongly disagree try to co-opt a family holiday of mine for venal, immoral purposes that hurt our nation,” he added.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!