--- title: Kamala Harris Aims Jibe at Donald Trump During 'SNL' Skit description: Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" where she tried to appeal to voters and jabbed at opponent Donald Trump. canonical: https://time.com/7171701/kamala-harris-saturday-night-live-appearance-donald-trump-jibe/ author: Rebecca Schneid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-03T14:16:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-19T15:04:18.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Kamala Harris Aims Jibe at Donald Trump During 'SNL' Skit og:description: Harris made a surprise appearance on the show where she tried to appeal to voters and jabbed at opponent Trump. og:url: https://time.com/7171701/kamala-harris-saturday-night-live-appearance-donald-trump-jibe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291668ccfe094a17/698a9bd7b21a9c2c6a5111c1/GettyImages-2181956443.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Saturday Night Live - Season 50 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kamala Harris Aims Jibe at Donald Trump During 'SNL' Skit twitter:description: Harris made a surprise appearance on the show where she tried to appeal to voters and jabbed at opponent Trump. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291668ccfe094a17/698a9bd7b21a9c2c6a5111c1/GettyImages-2181956443.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kamala Harris Aims Jibe at Donald Trump During Surprise _SNL_ Appearance  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Updated: Jan 19, 2026 3:04 PM UTCPublished: Nov 3, 2024 2:16 PM UTC  Kamala Harris appeared in a "Pre-Election" cold open on Saturday Night Live in New York City on Nov. 2, 2024. Kamala Harris appeared in a "Pre-Election" cold open on Saturday Night Live in New York City on Nov. 2, 2024.Rosalind O'Connor—Getty Images  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Updated: Jan 19, 2026 3:04 PM UTCPublished: Nov 3, 2024 2:16 PM UTC Ahead of the presidential election on Nov. 5, Vice President Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on sketch comedy show _Saturday Night Live_ (_SNL_)_._ The Democratic presidential nominee flew to New York City after [hosting a rally in North Carolina](https://time.com/7171689/harris-and-trump-present-contrasting-visions-for-north-carolina-as-election-day-approaches/)_,_ where her opponent, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, also held a rally in the pivotal battleground. Harris had a starring role in the Nov. 2 show’s “2024 Pre-Election Cold Open.” The skit started off by revisiting some of the most talked about campaigning moments over the past week, with Maya Rudolph continuing her portrayal of Harris and James Austin Johnson, clad in a [garbage](https://time.com/7160817/joe-biden-garbage-trump/) vest, parodying Trump. The sequence then turned to Rudolph’s depiction of Harris sitting in front of a vanity table, wishing she could “talk to someone who’s been in \[her\] shoes, you know? A Black, South Asian woman running for President… preferably from the Bay Area.” Then, the camera panned to Harris sitting on the other side of the pretend mirror.  Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) and U.S. actor Maya Rudolph participate in Saturday Night Live at NBC studios in New York City on Nov. 2, 2024. Charly Triballeau—Getty Images  Harris and Rudolph deliver a skit on Saturday Night Live in New York City on Nov. 2, 2024. Charly Triballeau—Getty Images After lengthy applause from the crowd, Harris said she was there to remind Rudolph and, by extension, herself: “You got this.” Harris continued: “Because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors”—a jibe based on a viral clip of Trump [struggling to open the door](https://www.tiktok.com/@cnn/video/7431721033348009259) to a garbage truck this week. Hitting their stride, Harris and Rudolph, who remained in character throughout, continued with a comedy rhyme-style pep talk with one another, beginning with the _SNL_ star saying, “Now Kamala, take my palm-ala,” before the two agreed that America needs to “keep Kamala and carry on-a-la.” The two then joined each other at the center of the stage for Rudolph to say she was voting for Harris come Tuesday, and to deliver the show’s iconic final lines of the cold open together: “And live from New York, it’s Saturday night.” It was then up to this week’s host, former _SNL_ writer John Mulaney, to take over. Harris has never hosted or guested on the show before, but previously praised Rudolph’s impression of her during an appearance on [_The View_ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qcvG0gXCBY)in October, saying of the _SNL_ star: “She’s so good.” Meanwhile, Trump has hosted _SNL_ twice: once in 2004, and once as a presidential candidate in 2015, though he did not appear on _SNL_ this season, or since his presidency. On Saturday evening, ahead of _SNL_ airing, a Republican Trump-appointed member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) claimed that Harris’ appearance on the show was a “blatant effort to evade” the [FCC's Equal Time](https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/political%5Fprogramming%5Ffact%5Fsheet.pdf) rule. In a [post on X (formerly Twitter)](https://x.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1852887210330341693), Brendan Carr said: “The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct—a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.” However, in a statement given to [_The Guardian_](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/03/harris-appearance-snl-equal-time-rule) and other publications, a spokesperson for the FCC said: “The FCC has not made any determination regarding political programming rules, nor have we received a complaint from any interested parties.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7171701/kamala-harris-saturday-night-live-appearance-donald-trump-jibe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7171701/kamala-harris-saturday-night-live-appearance-donald-trump-jibe/"},"headline":"Kamala Harris Aims Jibe at Donald Trump During Surprise SNL Appearance","datePublished":"2024-11-03T14:16:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-01-19T15:04:18.000Z","description":"Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance on \"Saturday Night Live\" where she tried to appeal to voters and jabbed at opponent Donald Trump.","url":"https://time.com/7171701/kamala-harris-saturday-night-live-appearance-donald-trump-jibe/","keywords":["2024 Elections","Donald Trump","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291668ccfe094a17/698a9bd7b21a9c2c6a5111c1/GettyImages-2181956443.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rebecca Schneid","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt291668ccfe094a17/698a9bd7b21a9c2c6a5111c1/GettyImages-2181956443.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saturday Night Live - Season 50","caption":"Saturday Night Live - Season 50","creditText":"Rosalind O'Connor—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"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/2024-election/","name":"2024 Elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7171701/kamala-harris-saturday-night-live-appearance-donald-trump-jibe/","name":"Kamala Harris Aims Jibe at Donald Trump During Surprise SNL Appearance"}}]}] ```