@Sandy73 said:

What IS that? I'm not an English native, so don't bite my head off. But sometimes it sounds British, then Australian and most of the time like a highly exaggerated fake thick American accent. It sounds really weird to my ears. Annoying. Is it bad acting? Or is it the fact that I'm not a native speaker and can't place this (annoying!) way of speaking?

The character is an American but the actor who plays him is British. I ( do not watch the show but I watched a few clips of O'Keefe & what I hear is the actor trying a 'southern (Texas, Mississippi, etc.) accent'? Some British actors can pull off the 'American' accent, others not so much.

The actor Jake Weber plays Brett O'Keefe, a right-wing media personality, in season 6 and 7 of this TV show.

Many say that he is doing a rather bad - intentionally? - parody of the real life far-right radio show host Alex Jones (born in Austin, Texas), known from "Infowars".

Here are videoclips of both:

WARNING: contains strong language!

...Brett O'Keefe (Jake Weber)

...Alex Jones - Infowars

But why would a show that is so high quality use an actor who is so bad at it?? Same goes for the theory of it being a parody. It doesn't fit. The guy who plays Peter Quinn is a Brit, too. I would never have noticed, had I not read it. I just saw Bridget Jones' baby and vice versa it's annoying, too.

Peter Quinn was a huge character for me - I love Rupert Friend - I think they under used him. Damien Lewis is a Brit also of course - maybe it depends on the actor's willingness to actually study how Americans speak for the region they are supposed to come from. Hugh Laurie (House) is another Brit who does a good American accent - in my view.