Chelsea Handler Blames Trump’s Election On… The Kardashians?

You know when you read a headline and it's so ridiculous that you just assume the words have been misconstrued or taken out of context? That's what I thought when I first saw Variety's new interview with Chelsea Handler: "Chelsea Handler Blames the Kardashians for Donald Trump’s Election." Surely she's kidding, I thought upon first read of the piece. But, no — Handle did not appear to be joking at all. So how did the Kardashians even come up? Handler claimed that the media treated Clinton unfairly during the election, and shared what she thought the media should've done differently. "Stop covering [Trump] so much," she said. "We’ve turned into a reality show. I blame the Kardashians, personally; the beginning of the end was the Kardashians. The way these people have blown up and don’t go away — it’s surreal. Everyone is for sale." What?! Okay. People have blamed the divisive election of Donald J. Trump to the highest office on everything from the Russia hacking to simmering racial and economic tensions. But to insinuate the Kardashian family here is just unfair (and weird). Keeping Up With The Kardashians started a decade ago; reality TV existed long before that. This is just conjecture, but I find it unlikely that the majority of Trump's base — conservative white people from rural areas — religiously tune into the show. And let's not that the women supported Clinton. Most significantly, the Kardashians have literally nothing to do with the broad driving forces — joblessness, resentment of Washington D.C., frustration with the status quo, Clinton's flawed candidacy, and swells of populism and xenophobia among them — that helped land Trump in the Oval Office. The Kardashians are a powerful family and brand — but political influencers? I don't think so.