Sutherland: "24" Didn't Help Obama Get Elected

Earlier this year, actor Dennis Haysbert said that the character he played on 24 - President David Palmer - helped Barack Obama get elected.

Kiefer Sutherland, aka Jack Bauer, would like to disagree.

"You don't honestly believe that our show helped get the first African-American into the White House do you?" he asked Newsbeat. "All we simply did is look to the future."

Sutherland continued to disagree with his former costar's comments made in the January 2008 edition of TV Guide.

"You have a huge African-American population and it was just a matter of time before they were represented politically by a president."

He adds: "We have a female president in season seven. You have a 52 percent population of women and we can clearly see it is just a matter of time before we have a female president."

The new season of 24 begins this Sunday.