Kamala Harris to appear on 'Saturday Night Live' tonight: Reports
Harris will appear in final episode before election
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Vice President Kamala Harris will make a "surprise" appearance on "Saturday Night Live" this evening, according to reports.
According to sources who spoke with the Associated Press and New York Post, the Democratic nominee will appear in the show's cold open in the final episode Saturday night before Tuesday's election.
"It’s all been hush-hush," a source told The New York Post Saturday, adding that the "Secret Service is here."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Harris has been portrayed on the show by Maya Rudolph, who is no longer a cast member but has returned to impersonate the Democratic candidate this election cycle.
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Kamala Harris has been portrayed by Maya Rudolph, right, on "Saturday Night Live." (Getty Images)
The appearance is likely to be a chance for Harris to promote herself, as the left-leaning show has made no secret of its disdain for her opponent former President Trump.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Reuters correspondent reported Saturday that Harris aides told traveling reporters that Air Force Two had been diverted mid-air from Detroit to New York City, where SNL is shot.
"They wouldn’t share what the Vice President is doing in New York City late on a Saturday. My guess is Harris will appear on Saturday Night Live," reporter Nandita Bose wrote.
"SNL" has a long history with Trump, who hosted the show in 2004 and again in 2015, when he was a presidential candidate. The show has mercilessly parodied him and hoped for his defeat. Its cast memorably broke down over his 2016 election victory and the show openly cheered when he lost in 2020.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Trump campaign disparaged her appearance in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"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. For the last four years, Kamala’s destructive policies have led to untold misery and hurt for all Americans. She broke it, and President Trump will fix it," spokesman Steven Cheung said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels previously suggested neither Trump nor Harris would appear on the show. (Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Last month, SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels suggested neither presidential candidate would appear this season. He said he did not reach out to either campaign and cited the need for "equal time" to both of them as an obstacle.
"You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions," Michaels said. "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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}However, he did not rule out a potential appearance from either of them after the election, when they would no longer be presidential candidates.
Republican Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission accused NBC, which broadcasts SNL, of trying to violate the FCC's Equal Time rule.
The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct - a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns," he wrote on X.
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