Saturday Night Live made no effort to ease back into their criticisms of President Donald Trump during the Season 45 premiere. After a cold open using Alec Baldwin’s caricature of the POTUS, the controversial Weekend Update block of the show kicked things off by discussing the impeachment inquiry directed at him.
“This week, President Trump was accused of a shady, mafia-style shakedown of the Ukraine. But luckily, Trump’s lawyer was able to smooth it over with professionalism and class,” anchor Colin Jost said just before playing a clip of Rudy Giuliani berating fellow Fox News guests with phrases like “shut up, moron.”
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Jost then went on to note that the “silly” impeachment inquiry “should feel like a huge, historic moment” but noted that it just feels like the latest in a long line of scandals the 73-year-old head of the executive branch will find a way though. He joked that the movie about Richard Nixon’s marred time in office, Nixon, was “a serious film directed by Oliver Stone,” but an equivalent for the Trump presidency could be made by “the dudes who brought you American Pie.”
Jost then took aim at Trump downplaying the Ukraine scandal’s whistleblower as just having second hand information.
Trump just keeps saying that all the information is bad because it’s second hand,” Jost said. “It’s like if the cops asked if you murdered someone and instead of saying ‘no’ you said, ‘Who told you that? Ron?’”
Anchor Michael Che also vented about how slow the impeachment process is and cracked a joke referencing John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed President Abraham Lincoln.
“The president is only a four-year job, but it feels like it’s taking them five years to just fire his a—. It’s frustrating,” Che said. “You know, I bet somebody explained how long impeachment takes to John Wilkes Booth, and he was like ‘O.K., well, where is he at right now?’”
The duo also went on to mock Trump’s feuds with CNN and Joe Biden, with the latter also taking a jab at the former vice president’s age.
Saturday Night Live airs weekly at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
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NEW YORK CITY – DECEMBER 19: "Toil and Trouble" – Elsbeth is thrown into the world of television after the showrunner of a long-running police procedural is brutally murdered in his office, and although it appears to be the act of a disgruntled fan, she begins to suspect the show's longtime star Regina Coburn (Laurie Metcalf) who yearns for artistic fulfillment. Meanwhile, Judge Crawford (Michael Emerson) continues to be a thorn in Elsbeth's side, on the CBS original series ELSBETH, Thursday, Dec. 19 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured (L-R): Carrie Preston as Elsbeth Tascioni and Carra Patterson as Kaya Blanke. (Photo by Michael Parmelee/CBS via Getty Images)
