With no debates to parody and new scandals emerging for the Hillary Clinton camp mere days before Election Day, “Saturday Night Live” initially stuck close to its traditional political cold open, before turning into a PSA to urge viewers to vote on Nov. 8.
The cold open began as an imagined back-and-forth between Donald Trump and Clinton in a CNN interview with anchor Erin Burnett, played by Cecily Strong.
Alec Baldwin’s Trump kissed three men — representing the FBI, a shirtless Vladimir Putin and the KKK — in the live televised interview, only to be met with a mere shrug from the media while Kate McKinnon’s Clinton stood aghast.
“Sorry, that doesn’t seem like enough of a story, let’s get back to the emails,” Strong’s CNN anchor responded as an agitated Clinton pointed out Trump’s questionable relationships with these groups of people. Trump has been accused of influencing James Comey’s FBI to sabotage the Clinton campaign. The Republican candidate has also been criticized for his admiration of Russian President Putin and for not rejecting endorsements from the KKK.
But as Baldwin and McKinnon continued to battle it out over Trump’s lewd language and the renewed FBI probe into Clinton’s private email server, Baldwin dropped the impression to break the fourth wall.
“I’m sorry Kate, I hate yelling at you like this,” Baldwin said, turning to McKinnon to his left.
“I know, I hate what this election has done to us,” McKinnon responded.
They turned to the audience, who cheered when Baldwin asked, “Don’t you feel gross all the time?”
The chords from alternative band Arcade Fire’s song “Wake Up” swelled as Baldwin and McKinnon smiled and linked hands, ran out of Rockefeller Center and engaged in a pretaped kumbayah with the baffled passerby outside.
The two “SNL” actors ran back to the live studio and implored the audience to “get out there and vote” on Election Day.
“We can’t tell you who to vote for, but we all get to choose what kind of country we want to live in,” McKinnon said.
