Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley appeared at Rockefeller Plaza on Saturday for a surprise appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” criticizing former President Trump’s resistance to the debate and ongoing legal battle.
Haley, who played a “concerned South Carolina voter,” stood in a mock audience during a fake CNN town hall with Trump, played by James Austin Johnson, and said, “My question is, why aren’t you debating Nikki Haley? “Is that so?” he asked.
Her appearance drew cheers from the audience, and Johnson had a less-than-pleasant reaction.
“Oh my god, it’s her! The woman who was in charge of security on January 6th. Nancy Pelosi!” Johnson responded.
Charles Barkley, played by Kenan Thompson, addressed President Trump’s apparent confusion of two political figures last month, pointing out that Haley is not former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) .
Shortly after the upset, Ms. Haley tried again to debate Mr. Trump, who last month refused to appear in the Republican primary debate because of the president’s clear lead in the polls.
“Donald, how are you doing? You may need to do a mental competency test,” Haley said.
“Trump” claimed that he “passed” that test, telling Haley, “They said I’m 100 percent mentally strong and competent because I’m a man. That’s why women are the best in our country.” “That’s why we shouldn’t be running an economy.”
Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has long advocated for mental capacity tests for people over 75. Trump, 77, responded to the claims last month, claiming he would beat her on a cognitive ability test.
“Actually, a woman I know recently asked me for $83 million,” Johnson said, referring to Trump’s recent loss in a defamation lawsuit against longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. Told.
The former president was ordered to pay a whopping $83.3 million last month for defaming a writer when he denied her claims that he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s.
Haley took aim at Trump’s mounting legal costs, saying, “And you spent $50 million on your own legal costs. Do you need to borrow money?”
Trump’s various political committees spent about $29 million in attorney fees and legal advice in the last six months of last year, bringing the annual total to about $50 million, according to federal election filings posted last week. .
Johnson responded by mentioning Haley’s nickname, a nod to the various nicknames President Trump has given to her and other political opponents.
That included songs like “Nikki Tiki Tabi” and “Nikki Don’t Lose That Number,” as well as a nod to “The Sixth Sense” star Haley Joel Osment.
“Nikki Haley Joel Osman, we call her,” Johnson said. “‘Sixth Sense,’ remember that…’I can see dead people.'”
“Yeah, that’s what voters will say when they see you and Joe.” [Biden] On the ballot,” Haley jokingly retorted.
The fake town hall was set up in Haley’s home state of South Carolina, where she is hoping to drum up support after two disappointments in the Iowa caucuses and last month’s first national primary.
Johnson, like Trump, told Haley that she intended to defeat the former South Carolina governor in her state, but Haley asked, “So you won your home state in the last election?” Ta.
“I won Staten Island,” Johnson replied. “There are places on Long Island where there are physical fights and people get out of their cars if you blow the horn.”
Trump lost his home state of New York in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Haley came into the spotlight when an audience member, played by actor Ayo Edebiri, asked the White House candidate: It ends with “s” and ends with “lavery?”.
Referring to the controversy she faced in December for not mentioning slavery as a cause of the Civil War, Ms. Haley responded, “Yeah, maybe I should have said that then.”
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