Last week wasn’t a great one for the Republican party. For months, they’d promised a “red wave,” where they’d destroy the Democrats’ hold over Congress. That didn’t happen. What did happen is a lot of Fox News viewers tuned in to watch hosts become increasingly verklempt. Sure enough, that was the focus of the latest SNL Cold Open.
Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, and Bowen Yang played the chipper hosts of Fox & Friends, who were no longer so upbeat. They started with a chat with one of the only Trump-backed candidates not to totally flame out (but who is currently behind in the results): Kari Lake, the former anti-Trump anchor who loves denying the 2020 election and doing Zoom interviews in Portrait Mode.
Cecily Strong did an eerily accurate take on Lake in a bit that torpedoed her voter fraud schtick. “It’s my belief that the election was rigged and the results should be thrown out,” she said, bemoaning the fact that her opponent, Katie Hobbs, currently has a slight edge on her. After her Fox & Friends hosts informed her that she’d suddenly taken the lead, Lake — who’s insinuated that she’d only accept the results if she won — pulled a 180, saying, “Which is why I have always said, this is a democracy. Trust the system. Trust the voters.”
Later they got a call from someone some at the network wish would quit while he’s behind: former president Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), who took some time out from his daughter Tiffany’s wedding to blabber about nonsense. Eventually the Fox News hosts had to break up with him.
“Mr. President. I don’t know how to tell you this. But we have moved on. We can’t have you on the show anymore,” said Gardner’s Ainsley Earhardt.
“What? What did I do?” a crestfallen Trump asked. “Was it the insurrection?” He then went through a long, long list of his many scandals: the impeachment, “blackmailing Ukraine,” Charlottesville, etc. But the real reason was because he lost.
“We just don’t see a future with you,” Day’s Steve Doocy told him. “But we can still be friends.” They then pushed him off the screen. But will the real Fox News be so bold as to dump him? Or will Teflon Don have his 100th comeback?
You can watch the sketch in the video above.