--- title: SNL: Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon Break Character description: Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon broke character on last night's Saturday Night Live cold open sketch in an appeal to voters canonical: https://time.com/4559864/snl-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alec-baldwin-election-cold-open/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-06T14:46:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:21.745Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon Break Character on SNL og:description: To escape the "gross" election og:url: https://time.com/4559864/snl-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alec-baldwin-election-cold-open/ 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 Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon Break Character on SNL twitter:description: To escape the "gross" election twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon Break Character on _SNL_ to Escape 'Gross' Election > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 6, 2016 2:46 PM UTC by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 6, 2016 2:46 PM UTC Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon broke character on last night’s [_Saturday Night Live_](http://time.com/4558784/dave-chappelle-snl-debut/) cold open sketch in an appeal to voters. The sketch began as the two [appeared once again](http://time.com/4542803/saturday-night-live-presidential-debate-3-analysis/) as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to make their final pleas to America ahead of Election Day, as Clinton dealt with numerous questions about the FBI’s [recent investigations](http://time.com/4555088/president-obama-fbi-hillary-clinton-email/) into her emails. _SNL_ also mocked Trump’s alleged ties to the FBI, Russia and the Ku Klux Klan, including kisses between Trump and an FBI agent, Vladimir Putin and a member of the KKK. Toward the end of the sketch, McKinnon’s Clinton listed everything she believes Trump’s campaign has ruined. “What is happening? Is the whole world insane? Donald Trump has ruined so much of what we, as Americans, hold dear,” she said. “Kindness, decency, Tic Tacs, Skittles, taco bowls, father-daughter dances, buses, bright red hats, the word _great_, the color orange … men.” Trump responded with his usual insults directed at Clinton before Baldwin dropped the entire act. “I’m sorry, Kate,” he said, as the cameras cut to a wide shot, showing both standing close to each other. “I just hate yelling all this stuff at you like this.” “I just feel gross all the time,” he continued, before turning to the audience. “I mean, don’t you guys feel gross all the time about this?” The audience cheered. “You know what I think would help us?” McKinnon said, grabbing Baldwin’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.” The sketch cut to a pre-taped segment as the two ran around Times Square, hugging each other’s supporters and attempting to create unity. Returning to the _SNL_ stage, Baldwin and McKinnon appealed to the audience to vote. “We can’t tell you who to vote for, but on Tuesday we all get a chance to choose what kind of country we want to live in,” McKinnon said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4559864/snl-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alec-baldwin-election-cold-open/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4559864/snl-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alec-baldwin-election-cold-open/"},"headline":"Watch Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon Break Character on SNL to Escape 'Gross' Election","datePublished":"2016-11-06T14:46:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:21.745Z","description":"\"I just feel gross all the time\"","url":"https://time.com/4559864/snl-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alec-baldwin-election-cold-open/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"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/4559864/snl-hillary-clinton-donald-trump-alec-baldwin-election-cold-open/","name":"Watch Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon Break Character on SNL to Escape 'Gross' Election"}}]}] ```