Kamala Harris’s SNL Appearance Has Broken MAGA’s Brains
MAGA Republicans are demanding equal time for Donald Trump after Kamala Harris appeared on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, even though the former president already received equal airtime within a day of her appearance.
Federal Communications Commissioner Brandon Carr, a Trump appointee, raised the alarm Saturday about Harris’s surprise appearance after it was announced just hours before the show aired. In a post on X, Carr wrote that Harris’s cameo was “a clear and blatant effort to evade 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,” he wrote. “Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
When Trump hosted SNL in 2015, his appearance triggered the Equal Time rule, and NBC offered Trump’s opponents 12 minutes of free air time on NBC affiliate stations.
Trump was offered the same deal after Harris’s appearance. On Sunday afternoon, the Republican presidential nominee aired a short 60-second message after the end of a NASCAR race, according to CNN. Harris had been given around 30 seconds “without charge,” according to the FCC filing.
That certainly didn’t satisfy grievance-fueled MAGA acolytes, who seem to think Trump is somehow entitled to a booking on SNL.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio complained Sunday that her appearance was part of a “full-scale assault” to “depress and suppress Republican votes” and that it had happened “in violation of the law.”
“I hope she laughed on Saturday Night Live, in front of millions of people who heard her laughing for a few minutes, cause that’s probably worth two to three million votes right there,” he sneered.
During an appearance Monday on Fox News’s Mornings With Maria, Carr claimed that the FCC might consider “license revocation” as a possible remedy if they find Harris’s appearance to be “egregious.”
“The whole purpose of this rule is to give people a fair shot,” Carr said, not acknowledging that Trump had already been given equal time.
Elon Musk also boosted allegations Sunday that Harris’s appearance was illegal (it wasn’t), alongside claims that SNL had committed election inference because it “did a skit *literally* aimed at boosting the name recognition” of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine.
The post implied that Kaine’s race was tightening against Republican candidate Hung Cao, after one single poll found Kaine’s 9–14 point lead shrank to only two points. It’s not illegal, however, for a political candidate to appear on a television show.