A US government communications regulator has claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris’ surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live violates ‘equal time’ rules governing political programming.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Brendan Carr claimed on social platform X that Harris’ appearance on the show is “a clear and blatant attempt to circumvent the FCC’s Equal Time Rule.”

Carr made this claim in response to an Associated Press alert that Harris was on the show that night.

“The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan behavior – a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence on one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offers Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns,” Carr, a Trump appointee, added.

Harris joined comedian Maya Rudolph early in the show in a sketch that skewered Donald Trump for his recent rally speeches, which included wearing an orange and yellow safety vest, commenting on the ongoing garbage controversy and pretending to use a broken microphone destroyed.

Harris began her “mirror image” sketch opposite Rudolph, the SNL cast member selected to impersonate her, on the other side of a mirror.

“I’m just here to remind you that you have this because you can do something your opponent can’t do — you can open doors,” Harris told Rudolph, apparently referring to a video from earlier this week in which Trump struggled to reach the handle of a garbage truck he briefly drove to a rally in Wisconsin.

That came after a comedian at a Trump rally in New York made a joke about Puerto Rico as a “floating island of trash” that was widely considered racist. Trump disavowed the comedian, but did not apologize.

During a video call with Latino voters, President Biden appeared to call Trump supporters trash. The White House later denied he had done so and released a transcript in which “supporters” had been changed to “supporters,” changing the meaning. White House stenographers appealed the change.

“The American people want to stop the chaos,” Rudolph said in the SNL skit, while Harris added, “And end the drama drawer.”

“With a cool new stepmom-ala. Put our pajamas back on. And watch a rom-com-ala,” Rudolph said, as the two later praised their “faith in the promise of America.”

Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of SNL, which is celebrating its 50th season on NBC, told the Hollywood Reporter in September that neither Harris nor Trump themselves would appear on the show.

“You can’t include the actual people running for office because of the election laws and the equal time provisions,” Michaels told the newspaper.

“You can’t have major candidates without having all the candidates, and there are a lot of minor candidates who are only on the ballot in three states and that becomes very complicated.”

In the interview, Michaels said it’s easier to characterize Republicans than Democrats who are offended by certain skits.

“It’s not personal in the sense of an attack, it’s just, you said that and you did that, so you thought it would be rude for us to comment on it? That’s what we do, and we’re going to do it again,” he said.

The Trump campaign complained about Harris’ appearance, saying that Harris “has nothing of substance to offer the American people, so that’s why she’s living out her twisted fantasy by cosplaying with her elitist friends on Saturday Night Leftists while her campaign fades into obscurity “, said a spokesperson. Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

Some viewers also noted that Harris’ “mirror image” comedy sketch was conceptually identical to a sketch in which Trump co-starred with ex-SNL comedian Jimmy Fallon on Fallon’s The Tonight Show in 2015. “I knew that SNL sketch with Kamala Harris looked familiar…” radio host Ari Hoffman said in an Instagram post with a link to the Fallon-Trump skit.