Jimmy Stewart’s Daughter Says Comparing Trump To George Bailey Is Dishonest, Hypocritical

In her speech to the Republican National Convention, Natalie Harp said that without Donald Trump, she wouldn’t be alive. She compared him to the character George Bailey in the classic movie It’s A Wonderful Life, saying that things would be bleaker and deadlier without him. Kelly Stewart Harcourt, the daughter of Jimmy Stewart, who played George in the movie, said this comparison was inappropriate.

In a speech to the convention, a woman who calls herself a “formerly forgotten American” makes a lot of hefty claims about Donald Trump’s accomplishments as president, asserting that the COVID-19 pandemic would have been deadlier (though experts say that Trump’s delay in response is responsible for a significant increase in deaths), and that without him, Americans would still be stuck with Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act has not been repealed). She also claims Trump’s ‘Right To Try’ law, which can allow terminal patients access to drugs before approval, saved her life. Yet, the Washington Post notes, the drug she credits with saving her life was already FDA approved — so unaffected by the cited law.

To frame all this, she says that in A Wonderful Life, George Bailey was allowed to see how much worse a world without him would be, and that her description is the same gift to Trump — a picture of a world without him.

In the classic Jimmy Stewart film, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, George Bailey is given a great gift—the “chance to see what the world would be like without” him.

At #RNC2020, we’d like to give you that same gift, President @realDonaldTrump!@GOPconvention:pic.twitter.com/C0N0BkH1uY

— Natalie Harp – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@NatalieJHarp) August 25, 2020

However, aside from the factual errors, the story didn’t sit well with at least one listener. The daughter of Jimmy Stewart, who portrayed George Bailey in the aforementioned film, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times, saying that her family doesn’t approve of the comparison.

In today’s print edition of the New York Times, a letter to the editor from Jimmy Stewart’s daughter, Kelly Stewart Harcourt. Paper crumpled by an enthusiastic ⁦@SenSherrodBrown⁩ waving it in the air as he delivered it to me first thing this morning. pic.twitter.com/iHs7UE0ZaF

— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) August 27, 2020

Given that this beloved American classic is about decency, compassion, sacrifice, and a fight against corruption, our family considers Ms. Harp’s analogy to be the height of hypocrisy and dishonesty.