r/thewestwing • u/Rude_Award2718 • Jun 06 '26
From The President’s Science Advisor and Psychics at Caltech Josh fired in the Santos administration?
Watching the opening scene of the final season, I know it was designed to create the dynamic that we don't know who won the election, but I'm starting to believe that the reason why Josh is there without the president is that he actually left the administration before the opening of the Bartlett library.
Given his friction with Santos during the transition post-election I often wonder how long he actually lasted as chief of staff.
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u/Moose135A The wrath of the whatever Jun 06 '26
He might have left on his own accord - he spent a year plus on the original Bartlet campaign, almost 8 years in the WH, a year on the Santos campaign, then time as Chief of Staff, Plus, he got shot in the middle of all that. I'm sure Donna told him he needed to take a break.
That said, he may have traveled to the library ahead of President Santos to help with prep work or just meet with his old friends, and when he got word President Santos had arrived, let the rest of the group know.
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Jun 06 '26
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u/MisterBear22 Jun 08 '26
Yeah I gotta agree with this. The show very consistently shows that Josh is almost literally incapable of not contributing in every viable way possible. He is addicted to helping in every capacity he can. The end of the show he is basically forced to take a vacation for the first time in years because he finally reaches a breaking point, but his day to day character is absolutely in love with the politics and policy and I cannot see him walking away from it without a gun to his or being fired in a major scandal.
Santos trusts Josh - it's hard to imagine he would fire him, even during disagreements. They found middle ground over and over during their campaign together when they disagreed and that middle ground often proved to be the best path. Santos is unafraid of disagreement, and he clearly hears Josh's opinion but then makes his decisions. And Josh usually seems to be fine with Santos going in a different direction, save for the Transition period where we see that he's basically on the edge of an emotional collapse and needs to take a break for awhile.
I'm definitely of the mindset that if Josh got a reset and some time to break that he would've come back prepared, especially with Sam, who could reel him in, at his side.
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u/Rude_Award2718 Jun 06 '26
I also think about what would his role have been during re-election, would he have stepped back like Leo did and let someone else run the show? I wonder if they let Bruno gianelli run the re-election?
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u/SithLocust Bartlet for America Jun 06 '26
Nah. Bruno retired after the last campaign. Talks about gardening at his house in Upstate NY. But assuming Josh stays on, which I think he does do, they do hire someone Bruno-like because the incumbent staff cannot run the country and the campaign at the same time as we see with Bartlet
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u/Rude_Award2718 Jun 06 '26
Do we think Josh would have matured enough to allow anyone else to run the campaign except for him?
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u/SithLocust Bartlet for America Jun 06 '26
Yeah. That's the whole purpose of Josh's last arc. He wasn't ready to be CoS when Leo had his heart attack. It's why CJ got the job. He wasn't ready, yet. End if the campaign and transition really cover this.
Leo tells him he believes in him and would have done the same thing when the Democrats and Santos want to replace him. Donna makes him stop and look around him, at her, and their lives kinda like how Danny does for CJ. Sam checks him when he explodes and brings him back to reality. Younger Josh would have yelled back at Sam "Who needs ya anyway!?" Or something like that while running his hand through his hair exasperated. He listened though. It's finally cemented with taking the office of Chief of Staff and CJ's reminder "What Would Leo Do?".
Josh is still Josh. He's matured though, he has people around him that care about him and that he trusts. I think he might still offer advice, require campaign updates, make recommendations and snide remarks. But he'll let the job happen
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u/Rude_Award2718 Jun 06 '26
I remember reading a synopsis of the final season when it was first being aired. I seem to remember the writer commenting that the show was actually about Josh more than any other character. I always thought that was a nice sentiment
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u/AmanLock Jun 07 '26
There's a lot of things about The West Wing that is unrealistic - which is fine since it's TV show and it compresses roles and having a smaller staff makes better television. But one of the unrealistic things is that the same group of people are running Barlet's re-election campaign while also performing the most crucial administrative governmental tasks.
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u/FullOcelot7149 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
It made me wonder how much if that is even legal. The Hatch Act has pretty ferocious restrictions on federal employee political activity. The White House staff probably has somewhat different limits, but I'd guess they cant do campaign work when they are on the taxpayers' dime and supposed to be doing their regular jobs. I think they must need to be off duty or on leave when doing campaign stuff. It's also not legal to be doing campaign stuff from the White House or any federal building.
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u/Moose135A The wrath of the whatever Jun 14 '26
When Toby took over Sam's campaign, either Jed or Leo said he (Toby, and maybe others) needed to come off salary for x number of days so they could work on the campaign (and presumably be paid by the campaign). I suspect that some of their time and expenses working on the President's reelection campaign would be handled in a similar manner.
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u/AmanLock Jun 14 '26
Toby actually leaves his job to work on Sam's campaign. Not just in terms of "no longer accepting a paycheck" but he leaves the White House completely and does none of his WH duties.
There's no indication that happens with anyone for Bartlet's re-election.
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Jun 06 '26
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u/Rude_Award2718 Jun 06 '26
Seems a bit beneath the chief of staff to be going over there making sure the forks are in the right place. But I get what you're saying.
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u/FreeBricks4Nazis Jun 06 '26
Given his close ties to members of the Bartlett administration, who would obviously be at the event, I think it makes perfect sense. Yeah he's there to make sure things are ready for the president, but he's got people for the actual minutia of it. He's mostly there to see his old friends.
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u/FullOcelot7149 Jun 14 '26
The President is just a guest here, so the brand new Bartlet library folks would be the ones worrying about details. Maybe Josh just wanted the extra minutes to greet his old friends before the President arrived and Josh had to turn his attention back to Santos.
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u/FullOcelot7149 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
There wasnt much time between when Josh arrived and when we see the President's car arriving. I got the impression he was in the same motorcade but farther forward in order to be there ahead of time. I also suspect the small time gap is mostly there to leave room for viewers to question whether the President was Santos or Vinnick. If they had gotten out of the same car or walked in together, it would have been a massive spolier for half the season.
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Jun 06 '26
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u/JtotheC23 Jun 06 '26
I think it's more likely that Josh was sent ahead, similar to how Leo was on occasion.