Jerry Seinfeld compares 2016 election to O.J. Simpson trial

Jerry Seinfeld this week compared the 2016 presidential election to another historic event: the O.J. Simpson trial.

Not only are both “interesting” and “entertaining” media spectacles that have captured national attention, but the comedian also suggested in an interview with CNN that the anger and frustration Donald Trump’s campaign seems to have roused among many of his white, working-class supporters is reminiscent of the way Simpson’s 1994 murder trial turned a national spotlight on the nation’s simmering racial tensions and the sense of police oppression felt by many African Americans at the time.

“If you’re white when the verdict of the O.J. trial [was read], you were like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know there was this feeling out there,'” Seinfeld said. “This has been another moment like that, where you’re kind of introduced to people that you live with and you didn’t know what was going on underneath.”

Ultimately, Seinfeld said he can’t help but laugh at the situation, suggesting that Trump’s concept of the presidency is more like that of a child’s than a serious contender for the White House.

“I’m just laughing [about] what he thinks being president is. ‘This company’s going to do that, you’re going to go over here. I can make other countries do whatever I say.’ It’s a kid’s image of being president,” Seinfeld said. “It’s like if you were 10, and they would make you president of your house, you would start ordering the dog around, not realizing no one’s going to listen to you.”