Presidential hopeful Nikki Haley made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live’s cold opening — ripping her GOP primary rival Former President Donald Trump in the opening sketch.
Pretending to be just a voter at a CNN town hall, Hayley told cast member James Austin Johnson, who was playing Trump, “Why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?”
“Oh my God it’s the woman who was in charge of security on Jan. 6,” Johnson, as Trump, exclaimed “it’s Nancy Pelosi.”
Hayley then quipped: “Are you doing ok Donald, you might need a mental competency test?”
“I took it ok and I aced the Test,” Johnson said. “I’m 100 percent mental. And I’m competent because I’m a man. That’s why women shouldn’t run the economy, in fact a woman recently asked me for 83.3 million dollars,” he added in a reference to the E. Jean Carroll defamation judgement brought against Trump last week.
“And you spent 50 million in your own legal defense do you need to borrow some money?” she said.
Johnson then went on a stream of consciousness rant that ended with him saying “I see dead people” to which Hayley responded: “That’s what voters will say when they see you and Joe on the ballot.”
At one point during the “Republican town hall,” Haley also accepted a question from the episode’s host, Emmy-winning actress Ayo Edebiri.
“I’m just curious, what would you say was the main cause of the Civil War? And do you think it starts with an ‘S’ and ends with ‘Lavery?” Edebiri pressed.
“Yep, I probably should have said that the first time,” Haley responded before quickly delivering the show’s iconic punch: “And live from New York it’s Saturday Night!”
Haley has been under fire for her massive gaffe at a December town hall, in which she claimed the root of the country’s deadliest war was over the limitations that the government placed on its people, but failed to mention the antebellum South’s “peculiar institution” in her response.
Following the backlash, Haley backpedaled to state that “of course” slavery was the cause, adding that she assumed it was a “given.”
