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Janel Moloney as Donna Moss
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Janel Moloney
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Aaron Sorkin
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Pilot
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Tomorrow
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Senior Assistant to the Deputy White House Chief of Staff (Seasons 1-6), Russell Campaign Senior Aide (Season 6), Santos Campaign Spokeswoman (Season 7), Chief of Staff to the First Lady (end of Season 7)
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is a
Fictional Character played by
Janel Moloney on the
Television Serial Drama ''
The West Wing ''. Donna is a
Recurring Character during the first season, although she appears in every episode. She officially becomes part of the regular cast starting with the second season.
For most of the series, Donna is Senior Assistant to
Deputy White House Chief Of Staff Josh Lyman (or, as she jokingly calls herself in one episode, the "''Deputy'' Deputy Chief of Staff"). Although all of the senior staff's assistants are continuing characters with personal backgrounds, Donna is the most well-defined and frequently featured staff member on the assistant level.
Donna was born in
Warroad, Minnesota to an
Irish-American father and an
Italian-American mother. Donna's United States citizenship was briefly revoked after the Minnesota town in which she was born ended up in Canada due to border changes. However, her citizenship was quickly restored after the discovery of a grandfather clause in the law. Donna has been identified by Josh as Protestant. He also made a remark about her Catholic school uniform, although it could have been his sarcasm. She later moved to
Wisconsin where she attended
University Of Wisconsin-Madison and dropped out half-way through to support her older boyfriend as he went through med school. After breaking up with her boyfriend, Donna left Madison and drove to New Hampshire to work for the "Bartlet for America" campaign, even going so far as to pretend she'd already been hired as
Josh Lyman 's assistant. Despite his discovery of her deception, Josh took a chance and hired her for the job.
Donna remained Josh's assistant during
Josiah Bartlet 's first presidential term and the beginning of his second. Her job during this time usually took the form of little more than a secretary (albeit in an unusually challenging and glorified environment) until Josh sent her as an observer for an American diplomatic mission to
Gaza , in response to her request for opportunities for job growth. While in Gaza, Donna was seriously injured as a result of a
Terrorist Attack on the American
Convoy . She gradually recovered from these injuries and returned to her duties at the White House, but eventually quit her job (as depicted in the season 6 episode ''Impact Winter'') to become senior aide to
Will Bailey - Vice President
Bob Russell 's presidential campaign manager (as revealed in the episode ''Faith-Based Initiative''). Her new position placed her in direct conflict with Josh, who had convinced US Congressman
Matt Santos to also run for the Democratic nomination, with himself as campaign manager. After Santos won the nomination, Donna applied to work for Josh at the Santos campaign. However, all of the personal attacks on Santos that Donna made as Russell's press secretary forced Josh to refuse her application. Later, on the Santos campaign trail, Donna was hired (unbeknownst to Josh) by Communications Director Louise "Lou" Thornton as a campaign spokesperson. After Santos's victory, Donna was offered a position in the new administration as Deputy
White House Press Secretary . However, having become close with Helen Santos during the campaign, she was also offered the position as Chief of Staff to the
First Lady . She chose to accept this offer, as she felt she could not work for
Josh while something was also happening between them personally. Her large
White House office, which she was shocked to see, symbolizes her growth since the beginning of the series, when her place of work was a cubicle in Josh's bullpen.
Donna is a Democrat, but is sometimes critical of the logic behind various
Democratic Party policies. Her political debates with Josh, which are often left unresolved, are one of the show's trademark methods of exploring multiple sides of an issue.
There is a continuing love story between Josh and Donna, from late season one throughout the series. The relationship between the two early on can best be described as a brother-sister one. For several seasons, the relationship remained in stasis, neither daring to make any real romantic move on the other, despite numerous indications:
- Donna encouraged Josh to date pollster Joey Lucas in the second season. This led to two revelations: Firstly, Josh admits he intentionally sabotages Donna's dating life. Secondly, Joey guessed that Donna was encouraging Josh to pursue her as a misdirection ploy, to keep him from discovering that she liked him herself. This is the first overt mention of a possible romance.
- Donna had a brief relationship with Republican House attorney Clifford Calley , while he was involved in the investigation of misconduct relating to the concealment of President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis. Calley, due to his personal relationship with Moss, discovered that she lied under oath about keeping a diary. Josh cut a secret deal with Calley to fix the problem.
- When first meeting Josh, Amy Gardner asks if he is dating Donna, implying that Amy thinks there may be something between Josh and Donna
- Donna recruited Josh to help her land a date with Jack Reese , but Josh's talks with Jack on the matter made Jack wonder if he was "getting in between anything."
- Later, when Josh has to pull her away from her date with Jack for work, Josh says "it's not what it looks like", meaning to say that he wasn't deliberately interrupting her and Jack's plans. Donna asks him about what he meant by the commment and why she would think that he was doing that anyway.
- During a heart-to-heart talk in " Commencement ," Amy Gardner asked Donna straight out: "Are you in love with Josh?" The viewers never got to hear the answer, if she gave one; Donna hesitated, then the camera moved away.
- In the 5th season, on the advice of C.J. Cregg, Donna tried to broaden her horizons past Josh and pursue her own social life outside of the White House. This prompted Donna to sleep with photographer Colin Ayres while she was on a Congressional delegation to the Gaza Strip. Shortly after, Donna was badly injured in a terrorist attack which killed two congressmen and Admiral Fitzwallace . Josh – distraught – rushed to her bedside at a military hospital in Germany. There he would also meet Colin, who found it strange that her boss flew across an ocean to be with her. Josh unconvincingly claimed that he was just Donna's friend.
- At the end of the fifth season finale " Memorial Day ," Josh was bringing a dozen red roses, a traditional sign of love, to Donna in her hospital room, only to find that she'd been rushed into surgery for a Pulmonary Embolism , the same thing that had killed his father.
- In the 6th season premiere " NSF Thurmont ," Colin called Josh out on his feelings for Donna while she was still in surgery, guessing it was "tragically unconsummated love, kept at arm's length by puritanical American work place ethics." In a moving scene at the end of the episode, Donna woke up to find Josh at her bedside, still waiting.
- In the 6th season episode " Impact Winter ," Donna finally broke loose and quit her job as assistant to Josh, seeing no chance of career advancement. She joined the Russell campaign, which would later put her in direct confrontation with her former boss.
- When the two met on the campaign trail, Josh told her she was on the wrong campaign, and that "you should be with me." Donna countered with a professional answer, and delivered one of Josh's old political truisms – revealing a conflict between their personal relationship and their professional one.
- After Santos beat Russel for the Democratic nomination, the highly qualified Donna wanted to return as Josh's deputy in season 7 premiere " The Ticket ," but he found himself forced to reject her as she was on record trashing his candidate while she was still working for the other team. During their conversation he revealed that he misses her "every day."
- Despite Josh's disapproval, his campaign Communications Director Louise Thornton (the only one with guts enough to disagree with him) later hired Donna anyway, saying she was good on television, and that it was now "all hands on deck." After a brief argument they both start to focus on the latest campaign developments.
- In the 7th season episode " The Cold ," Josh and Donna kissed passionately as she brought him the good news that Congressman Santos had caught Vinick and that they were tied in the national tracking polls. Josh apologizes, saying the kiss was "inappropriate", but Donna says "it was bound to happen sometime." Donna talks to Will, who says persuing a relationship with Josh wouldn't be inappropriate, and to C.J. about the matter. Later in the episode, Donna discreetly leaves the key to her hotel room on the table for Josh, but Edith Ortega notices the key before Josh can retrieve it and returns the key to Donna.
- In the 7th season episode " Election Day ," Josh and Donna consummated their relationship, sleeping together twice, both times on her initiative.
- In the 7th season episode " Transition ," Donna gave Josh four weeks to figure out "what they want from each other." She insisted that if this could not happen within four weeks, their relationship would remain in a constant state of ambiguity, which was not what Donna wanted. After talking to Lou as well as his deputy-of-choice Sam Seaborn , Josh realized that he desperately needed to take a break from work. At the end of the episode, Josh and Donna went on vacation together.
- In the 7th season finale (and series finale) " Tomorrow ," Josh and Donna woke up in bed together on the morning of Inauguration Day – ten weeks after Donna set the four week deadline.
