Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Kamala Harris poked fun at Donald Trump‘s garbage truck struggles as she made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live just days before America goes to the polls.
The vice president, who has been played on the 50th season of the comedy show by Maya Rudolph, flew to New York City on Saturday evening after a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Harris made the unscheduled stop while on her way to Detroit, Michigan, with Air Force Two landing at LaGuardia Airport in Queens. It was the final episode of the show before Election Day on Tuesday.
She appeared in the show’s cold opening opposite Rudolph’s version of her as the actress looked into a mirror and said she wished she could “talk to someone who has been in my shoes.”
The camera then panned to the reflection in the mirror, where the beaming vice president sat, receiving a huge cheer from the studio audience.
“You and me both sister,” Harris told Rudolph.
“It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris added. “I am just here to remind you that you have got this. You can do something your opponent cannot do like open doors.”
The joke came just days after a viral video of Trump struggling to climb into the door of a garbage truck in Wisconsin while wearing an orange fluorescent safety vest.
Harris then asked Rudolph if she really laughed like the actress portrayed on the show.
“Eeeeeh, a little bit,” Rudolph told her before saying that she was “going to vote for us.”
“Any chance you are registered in Pennsylvania?” Harris replied of the swing state that will play a pivotal role in deciding who takes the White House.
In response to the sketch, the Trump campaign told News Nation in a statement that Harris was “living out her warped fantasy cosplaying with her elitist friends.”
In October, the show’s creator Lorne Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter that SNL had not approached any candidate and had no plans to do so.
“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” Michaels said of the FCC’s rules on equal time for candidates.
“You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”
This season, in addition to Rudolph playing Harris, James Austin Johnson has played Trump, while Jim Gaffigan and Bowen Yang have taken on the roles of Tim Walz and JD Vance.
Dana Carvey has played the part of Joe Biden and Andy Samberg has portrayed Harris’s husband Doug Emhoff.
Earlier on Saturday Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told the Associated Press he was surprised Harris would appear on the show, which he said has not been flattering towards her.
Asked if Trump had been invited to go on SNL, he told AP, “I don’t know. Probably not.”
It is not the first time that the show has had heavyweight political guests make cameo appearances.
In 2007, President Barack Obama, who was then a candidate appeared on the show, hidden to begin with under a Halloween mask, Hillary Clinton, who was a candidate that year, also made a cameo.
Sarah Palin, who was the vice president candidate on John McCain’s ticket, appeared weeks before the election.
Donald Trump hosted the show in 2015 as a candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2016 election, which he went on to win.