“You and me both, sister,” Harris said to Rudolph. “It’s nice to see you, Kamala, and I’m just here to remind you that you have this because you can do something your opponent can’t. You can open doors.”

The joke was a reference to Trump’s appearance last week in Wisconsin when he initially struggled to open the door of a garbage truck he had entered at an airport, which was intended to draw attention to a comment by President Biden suggesting that Trump’s supporters were trash.

The show opened with cast member Chloe Fineman as CNN host Kaitlan Collins discussing the final push toward Election Day, before turning to a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, where Fineman joked that Trump has been talking for “four and a half hours.” was. Trump, played by cast member James Austin Johnson, spoke to a crowd in a bright orange vest like the one he wore when he boarded the garbage truck.

“Looks good, right?” Johnson said as he showed off the vest. After briefly talking about the “lightsabers” airport workers use to fly planes and his commitment “to protecting women whether they like it or not,” Johnson’s Trump backtracked, wishing the campaign would simply end.

“Where the hell am I?” Johnson said. “This place stinks, I don’t want to be here with you. Come on, I’m out of gas. I’m running on fumes, people. You can see it, right? The cracks are visible, I’m exhausted, I’m chattering, I’m doing crazy things with the microphone. Get me out of here.”

The scene later shifted to a locker room, where Rudolph, as Harris, stood and watched the meeting on TV with former “SNL” cast member Andy Samberg, who played Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, and comedian Jim Gaffigan who played the Democratic deputy. presidential candidate Tim Walz played.

After a visit from “SNL” icon Dana Carvey as an evasive, eye-rolling Biden, Rudolph asked to be alone in preparation for her speech and sat in front of a mirror, where the real Harris soon appeared on the other side.

After cracking the joke about opening doors, Rudolph’s Harris broke into her impression of the vice president’s noticeably enthusiastic laughter.

“I’m not really laughing like that, am I?” Harris asked, referencing a similar conversation Hillary Clinton had to Amy Poehler’s portrayal of her in 2008.

“A little,” Rudolph replied.

Rudolph then reached her hand through the ‘mirror’ to Harris.

“Now Kamala, take my palmala,” she said. “The American people want to stop the chaos and end the drama with a cool new stepmomala, kick back in our pajamas and watch a rom-comala.”

“Like ‘Legally Blonde’-ala,” Harris replied.

At the same time, the two said supporters must “preserve Kamala and carry on” and stated that they share each other’s “faith in the promise of America.”

They then delivered the signature intro: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”

Politicians have a long history of appearances on “SNL,” including Trump, who hosted the show in 2015, the year before he was elected president. The first sitting president to appear on the show was Republican Gerald Ford in April 1976, less than a year after “SNL” debuted, when he delivered the show’s famous opening lines.

Clinton appeared on the show when she was seeking the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, along with Poehler, who was known for her impersonation of Clinton on the show. Clinton returned in 2015, about a year before her presidential election loss to Trump, playing a bartender serving drinks to, well, Hillary Clinton, who was played by Kate McKinnon.

Former President Barack Obama also appeared on the show when he was a senator from Illinois in 2007, and Republican Bob Dole appeared on an episode in November 1996, just eleven days after losing that year’s election to Bill Clinton. And of course, there was Tina Fey’s memorable 2008 impression of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who later appeared on the show in the weeks before the election.

But showing up so close to Election Day, as Harris did on Saturday, is unusual, and comes as she and Trump battle for voters in seven battleground states that will likely decide the election. Before arriving in New York, Harris campaigned in Georgia and North Carolina on Saturday. Her campaign says she will be in Michigan on Sunday.

News that Harris would appear on the long-running sketch comedy show spread hours before the show hit the air at 11:30 p.m. Harris had taken off from an evening campaign stop in Charlotte, N.C., on Air Force Two and was scheduled to take the lead to Detroit, but once in the air, aides said she would take a detour and the plane landed at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, N.Y., according to news reports . Harris arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan shortly after 8 p.m

Rudolph first played Harris on the show in 2019 and has reprized her role this season, doing a spot-on impression of the vice president and calling herself “Momala.” She opened the season premiere of the show with the line, “Well, well, well. Look who fell out of that coconut tree.”

Her performance has received 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!”

Harris added that she was impressed by Rudolph’s “manners.”

Associated Press material was used for this report.

Nick Stoico can be reached at [email protected].