Vice President Kamala Harris swapped battleground states for comedy sketches in a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. As reported by FOX5NY, the vice president came directly from a campaign stop in Charlotte, North Carolina and was originally scheduled to head to Detroit. Instead, her plane made an unscheduled landing at LaGuardia Airport, signaling a call to the stage at the famed 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Harris appeared in the show's opening, delivering a moment side-by-side with her impersonator, Maya Rudolph. As the election is fast approaching on Tuesday, this last-minute media swing aims to potentially sway voters with humor and relatability. In a moment of levity, Harris playfully remarked, "You've got this, because you can do something your opponent can't do, you can open doors," as noted in the New York Post.
Harris’ SNL stint wasn't without its critics, however. Donald Trump's campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, was quick to lambaste the vice president's appearance. "Kamala Harris has nothing substantive to offer the American people, so that's why she’s living out her warped fantasy cosplaying with her elitist friends on 'Saturday Night Leftists' as her campaign spirals down the drain into obscurity," Cheung told Fox News. Meanwhile, as Harris left the SNL studios, she was confronted by anti-Israel protesters labeling her a "murderer."
The strategic move to appear on SNL right before an election is an unusual one, but not without precedent. History tells us that the show has been a platform for political figures to show a lighter side, going back to President Gerald Ford's cameo in 1976. Rudolph's parody of Harris made waves, with the vice president herself admitting, "She’s so good," during an interview with ABC's "The View," as shared by FOX5NY. Regardless of whether or not Harris' SNL gamble will pay off at the polls, it has surely cemented this election cycle's connection with pop culture.
It's worth highlighting that the timing of this appearance coincided with intense campaign activity; Harris spent the earlier part of her day campaigning in Atlanta, Georgia, and Charlotte, North Carolina, highlighting the breakneck pace candidates must maintain in the final hours of an election season. Her SNL appearance, though met with mixed reactions, is a bid to stay visible and maintain a pulse in the cultural zeitgeist as voters prepare to cast their ballots.
