Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on “Saturday Night Live” for only 90 seconds, but her cameo sparked hours of online debate over whether NBC had to offer former President Donald Trump “equal time.”
Unlike many aspects of the 2024 presidential campaign, all sides worked together to address the issue quickly — and to the parties’ apparent satisfaction.
After Harris’ appearance on NBC’s long-running sketch comedy show was announced, but before it had aired, a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, called the appearance a “clear and blatant effort to evade the Equal Time rule.”
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.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, said at a Nov. 3 Trump rally in Macon, Georgia, that Harris’ appearance was “in violation of the law.”
But NBC filed a notice with the FCC on Nov. 3, within a day of the show’s airing, stating that Harris appeared for 90 seconds “without charge.” NBC and its owner, Comcast, that day extended an opportunity to satisfy the equal time requirement, the Trump campaign told PolitiFact.
The Trump campaign filmed a 60-second, direct-to-camera video message after his Pennsylvania rally, which it worked with NBC to air Nov. 3, following a NASCAR race and “Football Night in America,” an NFL game.
“We accommodated the Trump campaign’s request for equal time consistent with our regulatory obligations,” NBC told NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik.
This is not the first time a candidate’s “Saturday Night Live” appearance triggered such questions.
In 2015, Trump hosted the show, and our analysis then found that the “equal time” rule is complicated and often misunderstood.
The rule kicks in when a broadcast station allows the face or voice of a legally qualified candidate to appear on the air. It doesn’t apply to cable or broadcast programs that cover the news such as “NBC Nightly News” or “Meet the Press.”
“Saturday Night Live,” however, is a comedy show, so it isn’t exempt. But that doesn’t mean that every presidential candidate is guaranteed time on “SNL.” The show tends to invite the big names such as Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Three-time Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein? Not so much.
“Keep in mind that in some states there are many candidates for president and it would be impractical to give all of them time within the same program,” William E. Lee, co-author of “The Law of Public Communication,” told PolitiFact.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a Georgetown Law professor and telecomunications policy expert, told us after Harris’ appearance that NBC did what the federal law requires.
NBC, Schwartzman said, “allowed a legally qualified candidate to ‘use’ its air time. Trump requested time … and received equivalent air time.”
Ishan Mehta, media and democracy program director at Common Cause, a public advocacy group, agreed with Schwartzman.
“NBC had a plan, successfully negotiated with the Trump campaign, and did the right thing,” Mehta said. “This is how the system is supposed to work.”
Schwartzman added, “Those of us obsessed with national politics may not realize that last minute equal opportunities requests are common at the state, and especially, local level. Hundreds of local radio and TV stations get requests in the days just before Election Day; they expect it, are used to it, and know how to manage it.”
In the “cold open” intro sketch for “SNL,” Maya Rudolph, who has impersonated Harris on the show since 2019, talked to a mirror as she prepared closing remarks in Pennsylvania.
“I wish I could talk to someone who’s been in my shoes,” Rudolph said. “You know, a Black, South Asian woman running for president. Preferably from the Bay Area.”
Harris then appeared on the other side of the mirror and said, “You and me both, sister.”
“I’m just here to remind you: You got this,” Harris said, before jabbing playfully at Trump’s effort to open the door of a garbage truck. “Because you can do something your opponent cannot do: You can open doors.”
Standing side by side in matching black pantsuits and pearls, Rudolph said, “I am going to vote for us.”
Harris quipped, “Great, any chance you are registered in Pennsylvania?”
A second sketch during the Nov. 2 show also involved a candidate currently running for reelection, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.; the gag was premised on Kaine’s national obscurity despite running as Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential nominee eight years ago.
Kaine’s Republican opponent in the U.S. Senate race in Virginia, Hung Cao, released a statement that said, “Many of my supporters are saying I should sue NBC for giving free airtime to my opponent Tim Kaine right before my election. I disagree. I was barnstorming 12 towns and cities across Virginia yesterday talking about how we’re going to secure our border & lower prices, while Tim was being a human punch-line in New York City.”
By Louis Jacobson and Amy Sherman, PolitiFact staff writer