A Federal Communications Commission commissioner said Saturday that Kamala Harris' appearance happened Saturday night live violated the equal time rule.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to circumvent the FCC's equal time rule,” Commissioner Brendan Carr said he wrote on X, formerly Twitterin response to news of his scheduled appearance.
The FCC's equal time rule requires American radio and television stations to offer equal time to rival political candidates.
“The purpose of the rule is to prevent exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct – a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert influence for a candidate on the eve of an election,” Carr wrote, adding: “Unless the broadcaster has offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
Carr was appointed to the FCC by Donald Trump in 2017. For Forbeshe is also credited as the author of a section of Project 2025, the Republican Party's unofficial policy plan. In his post on Saturday he continued to point this out SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels had already said this previously The Hollywood journalist the show would not reach either Harris or Trump, citing the equal time rule.
“You can't bring along people who continue to run because of election laws and equal time provisions,” Michaels said THRand then clarified, “You can't have the major candidates without having all the candidates, and there are a lot of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that gets really complicated.”
It's unclear whether NBC reached out to Trump when planning Saturday's episode, but the show has a long history of hosting political candidates during its campaigns (including Trump in 2015).
Harris' cameo Saturday night featured a Democratic candidate in conversation with herself (or, Maya Rudolph's impression of her, that is) similar in structure to Trump's appearance alongside Jimmy Fallon's impression of him in that sketch from 2015.
“Now Kamala, take my palm-wing,” Rudolph told the vice president. Then they started finishing each other's sentences. “The American people want to stop the chaos and end the drama-wing with a great new stepmother. Look, put on your pajamas and look at a rom-Kamala, like Legally blonde-wing. And start decorating for Christmas, Fa-la-la-la-la. Because what do we always say? Keep Kamala and move forward wing.
John Mulaney hosted the episode, with musical guest Chappell Roan.