CNN’s Alisyn Camerota is serious about her political comedy.
After Saturday Night Live opened its final show of 2018 this weekend with an It’s a Wonderful Life parody that imagined a world in which Donald Trump was never elected president, the actual president of the United States tweeted, “A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live.”
“It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials,” Trump added. “Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?”
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As her co-anchor John Berman read that “official statement” aloud to New Day viewers on Monday morning, Camerota interrupted to him to point out that SNL is “actually not news,” it’s a “comedy show.”
“What part is the collusion there?” she asked when he was done. “Oh, I see, that Saturday Night Live is colluding with people? OK.”
“Here’s the point,” she continued. “I am at my most patriotic when I watch Saturday Night Live.”
Camerota explained that she remembers having an “epiphany” when she was younger that, “Wait a second, we live in country where comedians can mercilessly make fun of our president—and I’ve felt this way for decades—how great is this country that we live in.”
“And you cannot take that away,” she told Trump. “I’m sorry, you can take issue with the Fourth Amendment as you did this weekend or the criminal justice system, but do not mess with our comedy!”
Berman then joked that if Trump really wants to take action against SNL he could join the lawsuits that Bill Clinton has against Darrell Hammond, Jimmy Carter has against Dan Aykroyd, and Gerald Ford had against Chevy Chase.
“I don’t remember hearing about those,” Camerota deadpanned.
