SNL comically endorsing VP Harris shows more courage than The Washington Post!
SNL comically endorsing VP Harris shows more courage than The Washington Post!
SNL knows Trump will target them if he wins
Saturday Night Live did something that The Washington Post, USA Today and The L.A. Times all lacked the courage to do and that is endorse Vice President Harris. True, SNL did not endorse Harris in the traditional news media sense, but the Cold Open of Saturday’s show which featured a surprise appearance by Vice President Harris and a tsunami of comedic barbs directed against Donald Trump was the comedic equivalent of an endorsement.
And by doing so, SNL knowingly exposed the show, and all involved to Trump using the apparatus of government to target them--if he wins. We already are seeing a Trump loving Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, raise the specter of punishing SNL and NBC by telling Fox News that the comedic sketch was a "clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule.”
Watch the SNL cold open below:
The first half of this very funny sketch featured SNL’s Donald Trump creepily telling people at his rally--as in real life—that he will be protecting women “whether the women like or not.” As SNL’s Trump declared, “When you are famous, they let you protect them. Grab them right by the protection”—referring to Trump’s infamous Access Hollywood tape where he bragged about grabbing women’s genitals without even waiting for consent because as a celebrity he believed that was his right.
The second half of the cold open was where VP Harris made her surprise appearance. We see Maya Rudolph as Harris look into the mirror to give herself a pep talk and facing her—dressed identically—is the Vice President. The real Harris delivers a comedic pep talk to Rudolph with lines like, “I’m just here to remind you, you got this. Because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors.” That joke is a reference to Trump a few days ago struggling to open the door of a garbage truck.
However, the sketch was more than very funny—it was courageous. SNL knew by inviting Harris on and comically crushing Trump just days before the end of this election, they are exposing themselves to the wrath of Trump. This is the same Trump who in the closing days of the 2016 campaign publicly called for SNL to be cancelled for mocking him—claiming SNL was “rigging” the election against him.
More alarmingly, Trump as President continued to not only slam the show for ridiculing him, but in 2019, called on the FCC to investigate the show for what he called “election interference,” writing on Twitter, “Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?”
We later learned that Trump at that time in 2019 had asked officials in his DOJ and FCC to investigate the show for comedically ridiculing him. As The Daily Beast reported, “Trump seemed disappointed to hear that there was no actual legal recourse or anything that” the Federal Communications Commission or Department of Justice “could do to punish late-night, anti-Trump comedy.”
Today’s Trump is even more bitter, vindicative and unhinged than the Trump of 2019. Last year, Trump called for Comcast, the parent company of NBC and MSNBC, to be investigated “for treason” over its coverage and said if he wins, the news media would “pay a big price.”
And over the past few months, Trump has very vocally threatened media outlets with taking away their FCC licenses for conduct he viewed as hurting his election prospects. For example, after the presidential debate in September moderated by ABC News where Harris trounced Trump, we heard the angry Trump go on Fox News and call for the Disney-owned network to have its license “take[n] away.”
Last month on a podcast, Trump declared that “The New York Times is one of the most dishonest of all,” adding ominously: “Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them.”
After CBS aired the “60 Minutes” interview of VP Harris- that Trump dropped out of—he declared that CBS “should lose their license, and they should take ’60 Minutes’ off the air.”
But Trump is not content to simply threaten media outlets with angry words. Just a few days ago, Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS demanding $10 billion in damages over the network’s “60 Minutes” interview of Harris. Trump claimed in the federal lawsuit that the “60 Minutes” interview and the associated programming were “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” intended to “mislead the public and attempt to tip the scales” of the presidential election in her favor. Trump’s lawsuit argued that “CBS’s misconduct was unconscionable because it amounts to a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.”
This lawsuit has been rightfully slammed by many lawyers and media outlets as a threat to the First Amendment. Those critics are correct. And in the end, the lawsuit is expected to fail.
But as President, Trump would not be hiring private lawyers to harass media outlets critical of him, he will have the power to direct the DOJ, FCC and other federal agencies to use their vast resources to target Trump’s media critics. (We know the MAGA base would cheer this.) All it takes is for Trump to shut down one media outlet—or impose tremendous fines--for others to self-censor.
This is the same playbook that Trump’s close ally, Hungary’s Viktor Orban has used to control the media in his country, helping him and his political party win elections. As HRW warned in a recent report, Orban and his government’s actions in “hollowing out media freedom is to prevent the public from knowing what the government is doing or holding it to account.” That is exactly what Trump aspires to doing.
What SNL did was more than just serve up comedy. They stood up for our freedom of speech and our democratic Republic in a way that outlets like The Washington Post failed to do. And by doing so, SNL again reminds us of the threat Trump poses to our freedoms.
Not only was SNL courageous to do this, Kamala Harris was once again proving her smarts in being able to reach huge groups of people. She was also proving again her ability to get under trump's skin. I have not yet watched the video - I'll do it when my husband and I can watch it together. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Someone in the main stream Press should remind the Trumpers that they can't change the rules of the game after kickoff. Donald complains "the election will be rigged" "the election was stolen" "Stop the Steal" but he doesn't complain when his favorite football team loses. Everyone in the Media, remind him that he accepted the rules of the game when he entered the campaign. Following the Rules is the American Way!