Studio 8H in New York’s Rockefeller Center may be as close as Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley gets to the debate floor to debate former President Donald Trump.
The former South Carolina governor, who pulled out of a planned Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire last month after it became clear Trump would not attend, appeared as himself in a CNN election-year town hall sketch during the “Saturday Night Live” cold open. Saturday.
Not only did the appearance put Haley face-to-face with a version of the front-runner and her former boss when she was ambassador to the United Nations, but it allowed her to correct perhaps her biggest blunder on the campaign trail.
Ayo Edebiri, the host of TV’s “Ayi” program, appeared as an audience in a fictional town hall. He asked Haley a question:
“I was wondering what was the main cause of the Civil War?” he said. “Um, and you think it starts with ‘s’ and ends with ‘lavy’?”
“Yeah, I probably should have said that first,” Haley said, moving on to the night’s opening honors: “And live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
At a candidate town hall in New Hampshire on Dec. 27, Haley asked the same question, but gave a vague answer. came to “the role of government”.
Haley dominated the “SNL” version of the town hall.
Haley, who was seen as an “Anxious South Carolina voter” in the audience, asked James Austin Johnson’s Trump as he stood on the debate stage.
“My question is, why don’t you argue with Nikki Haley?” he said.
As Trump, who described South Carolina as “one of the top two Carolinas,” Johnson acted as if he had seen a ghost.
“Oh my God it is,” she said. “She is the woman in charge of security January 6,” Johnson’s Trump said. “This is Nancy Pelosi.”
He echoed real-life comments Trump made at a Jan. 19 campaign rally in New Hampshire. It turned out he had mistaken Haley for a Democratic congressman from California and former speaker of the house.
There is Trump accused Pelosi is trying to use her influence to undermine him to manipulate security and the police response on January 6 when his supporters tried to violently block the approval of the 2020 elections.
“You’re good, Donald,” Haley said during the sketch. “You may need a mental aptitude test.”
Johnson’s Trump responded: “I did. I took the test. And I did it, OK? Perfect score. They said I was 100% sane.”
He suggested that Haley would not be a good president because she is a woman. “Women are terrible with money.
“Actually, a woman I know recently asked me for $83.3 million,” he said, referring to the jury’s decision last month that journalist E. Jean Carrol must pay. 83.3 million dollars for slandering him.
Haley countered that he might have a money problem, given the big prize. “Need to borrow some money?” he said.
Trump made puns on Haley’s name, then said, “I’ve always been very nice to you, except when I’m implying you weren’t born in this country.”
Then he said I will beat you in his state.
Haley asked whether Trump had won in his former home state of New York. (He lost). Johnson’s Trump responded: “I won parts of Staten Island and Long Island that were fist fights.”
After Haley Posted in X about the cameo: “Just know it’s past Donald’s bedtime, so we’re looking forward to a flood of candid tweets in the morning”
“Saturday Night Live” airs on NBC, a division of NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.