--- title: Hillary Clinton Appears as Val in SNL Skit With Miley Cyrus description: The 2016 Democratic candidate for President played Val the bartender canonical: https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-04T13:52:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:27.580Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Hillary Clinton's 'SNL' Skit With Miley Cyrus og:description: "So Hillary, what brings you here tonight?" og:url: https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Hillary Clinton's 'SNL' Skit With Miley Cyrus twitter:description: "So Hillary, what brings you here tonight?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Hillary Clinton's _SNL_ Skit With Miley Cyrus > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Clinton Serves Herself A Pick-Me-Up On 'SNL' [Watch (HLS stream): Clinton Serves Herself A Pick-Me-Up On 'SNL'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0eb9pbFS.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2015-10-04. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton spent her Saturday night in the bar with her "Saturday Night Live" counterpart, Kate McKinnon._  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Oct 4, 2015 1:52 PM UTC  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Oct 4, 2015 1:52 PM UTC Hillary Clinton took on the role of Val the bartender last night in a _Saturday Night Live_ skit, and let’s just say it wasn’t her smoothest performance yet. In the skit, which kicked off with Miley Cyrus moaning about the lack of choices in the field at a nondescript bar as a nondescript woman, Hillary Clinton (Kate McKinnon) and her aide, Huma Abedin (played by Cecily Strong), are grabbing a drink and talking strategy. Huma steps aside and “Hillary” has a vision of chatting up her bartender Val (played by the real Hillary Clinton). “So, Hillary,” Clinton asks “Clinton.” “What brings you here tonight?” “Well, I needed to blow off some steam,” McKinnon says. “I’ve had a hard couple of 22 years.” Clinton attempts to wisecrack about being a grandmother, the Keystone XL pipeline, and awkwardly stumbles on the words _gay marriage_. Shining briefly in a moment when she does a Donald Trump impression, Clinton closed out her performance with a sing-along with McKinnon to the tune of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.” ### See Photos From Some of _Saturday Night Live_‘s Best Political Cameos  Sarah Palin, Feb. 15, 2015. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Chris Christie, Nov. 17, 2012. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Jon Huntsman, Nov. 20, 2011. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  David Paterson, Sept. 27, 2010. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  John McCain, Nov. 01, 2008. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Mike Huckabee, Feb. 23, 2008. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Barack Obama, March 11, 2007. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Donald Trump, April 3, 2004. Mary Ellen Matthews—NBC/Getty Images  Al Gore, Dec. 14, 2002. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Rudy Giuliani, Dec. 15, 2001. Dana Edelson—NBC/Getty Images  Janet Reno, Jan. 20, 2001. Mary Ellen Matthews—NBC/Getty Images  Steve Forbes, April 13, 1996. NBC—NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images  Al Franken, Sept. 25, 1993. Gerry Goodstein—NBC/Getty Images  Paul Simon, Dec. 19, 1987. Al Levine—NBC/Getty Images  Ed Koch, May 12, 1984. NBC/Getty Images  George McGovern, April 14, 1984. NBC/Getty Images  Ed Koch, May 13, 1983. Al Levine—NBC/Getty Images  Daniel P. Moynihan, March 15, 1980. NBC/Getty Images  Ralph Nader, Jan. 15, 1977. NBC/Getty Images ## Transcript Hillary Clinton stopped by the Saturday Night Live season premier to, what else? Catch up with her on screen doppelganger. Hi, I'm Hillary Rodham Clinton. Hey, great name, I'm Val. [ LAUGH ] The Democratic presidential hopeful played a sympathetic bartender alongside Kate [ UNKNOWN ] Clinton impersonation. The pair commiserated about the tribulations of campaigning, took some shots at the competition, Donald Trump? Isn't he the one that's like, you're all losers? And indulged in a little light karaoke. Always tomorrow. Hanging out with her lookalikes is an old trick for Clinton. During the 2008 presidential race she turned up to critique Amy Poehler's impersonation of her. [ LAUGH ] Do I really laugh like that? [ CROSSTALK ] But Clinton says, it's all in good fun. I love the impersonations of me, but they come at it from a Slightly different perspective, and I learned something about myself watching that pretend to be me. [ LAUGH ] Her appearance comes after a summer of damaging press stories about her private email server. A scandal that is still eating away at Clinton's favorability rating. McKinnon's portrayal of Clinton probably wasn't helping matters. And I will ascend to the high office above President and claim my rightful place. Over the past month, Clinton's been trying to recuperate from the scandal and show off her softer side with a string of lighter media appearances, some more successful than others. And Clinton's campaign clearly hopes her SNL appearance will help polish- up her image. One Democratic pollster told the Wall Street Journal, Clinton's trying to show that she's not the **** of the joke, she's in on the joke ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/"},"headline":"Watch Hillary Clinton's SNL Skit With Miley Cyrus","datePublished":"2015-10-04T13:52:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:27.580Z","description":"\"So Hillary, what brings you here tonight?\"","url":"https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","democrats","2016 Election","SNL","Saturday Night Live","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tanya Basu","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/","name":"Watch Hillary Clinton's SNL Skit With Miley Cyrus"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Clinton Serves Herself A Pick-Me-Up On 'SNL'","description":"Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton spent her Saturday night in the bar with her \"Saturday Night Live\" counterpart, Kate McKinnon.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0eb9pbFS/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-04T05:34:16.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0eb9pbFS.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/","duration":"PT1M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4046522/hillary-clinton-miley-cyrus-snl/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```