NEW YORK – Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in the final days before the presidential election, playing herself as the mirror-image double of Maya Rudolph’s version of her in the show's cold open.
The first lines the candidate spoke as she sat across from Rudolph, their outfits identical, were drowned out by cheers from the audience.
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“It is nice to see you Kamala,” Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin she kept throughout the sketch. “And I’m just here to remind you, you got this.”
In sync, the two said supporters need to “Keep Kamala and carry-on-ala,” declared that they share each other’s “belief in the promise of America” and delivered the signature “Live from New York it’s Saturday night!”
Harris made the surprise trip to New York before Tuesday's election, taking a brief break from the battleground states where she has been campaigning. With the appearance on NBC's sketch comedy show, the Democratic nominee was hoping to generate buzz and appeal to a nationwide audience.
Harris had left Charlotte, North Carolina and was scheduled to head to Detroit, but once in the air, aides said she would be landing elsewhere. The appearance was only confirmed by Harris' team moments before the live airing began.
The vice president arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, where "SNL" tapes, shortly after 8 p.m., enough time for a quick rehearsal before the show aired live at 11:30 p.m. It was the final "SNL" episode before Election Day.
She left immediately after the opening segment and told reporters, “It was fun!” as she boarded her plane for Michigan.
Host John Mulaney and musical guest Chappell Roan shifted the show away from politics. Neither addressed the election.
Some expected Roan, the 26-year-old singer who has become a major star in recent months, to make a political statement in her first appearance on the show. She has previously been harshly critical of the Democratic Party and declined to endorse Harris in her campaign against Republican Donald Trump, although Roan has said several times she plans to vote for her.
Roan sang her hit “Pink Pony Club," on an all-pink set bathed in pink light and made no remarks.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., also made a surprise appearance, in a game-show sketch where the gag was that no one remembered him despite his being Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016.
“It’s been less than eight years. What’s my name?,” he said, as the contestants stood silent and flummoxed.
Rudolph first played Harris on the show in 2019 and has reprised her role this season, doing a spot-on impression of the vice president, including calling herself “Momala” — a reference to the affectionate nickname that Harris' stepchildren gave her.
Fellow former cast member Andy Samberg appeared again as Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff. Standup comic Jim Gaffigan played Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Dana Carvey, best known on the show for playing President George H.W. Bush in the late 1980s, stood in for President Joe Biden.
Rudolph’s performance has won critical and comedic acclaim, including from Harris herself.
“Maya Rudolph — I mean, she’s so good,” Harris said last month on ABC’s “The View.” “She had the whole thing, the suit, the jewelry, everything!”
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, expressed surprise that Harris would appear on “SNL” given what Miller characterized as her unflattering portrayal on the show. Asked if Trump had been invited to appear, Miller said: “I don’t know. Probably not.”
Politicians nonetheless have a long history on "SNL," including Trump, who hosted the show in 2015. But appearing so close to Election Day is unusual.
Clinton was running in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary when she appeared next to Amy Poehler, who played her on the show and was known for launching into a trademark, exaggerated cackle. The real Clinton wondered during her appearance, “Do I really laugh like that?”
Harris repeated that line in response to Rudolph’s portrayal of her laugh in Saturday’s episode.
Clinton returned in 2016, when she was running against Trump, who won that election.
The first sitting president to appear on "SNL" was Republican Gerald Ford, who did so less than a year after the show debuted. Ford appeared in April 1976 on an episode hosted by his press secretary, Ron Nessen, and declared, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night.”
Then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama appeared alongside Poehler impersonating Clinton in 2007. Republican Bob Dole was on the show in November 1996 -- a mere 11 days after losing that year’s election to Bill Clinton. Dole consoled Norm Macdonald, who played the Kansas senator.
Then there was Tina Fey’s 2008 impression of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — and in particular her joke that “I can see Russia from my house.” It was so good that Fey won an Emmy and Palin herself appeared on the show that October, in the weeks before the election.
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Long, Miller and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.