Alec Baldwin returns to SNL as Bret Baier in Fox News’ VP interview

“I’m here for an interview with an openly hostile network and Trump has canceled all his interviews,” the SNL vice president later added about the ex-POTUS

At the end of a week deep in some of the worst and most cringe-inducing events of an extremely unusual election, tonight’s SNL had Beetlejuice franchise star Michael Keaton back as host for the fourth time – start measuring that Five- Timers jacket. Sticking to symmetry, former host Billie Ellis will also be the musical guest on SNL for the fourth time.

In what was a pretty strong run of cold opens during the first month of SNL’s 50^e season this election year, had an exceptionally good wine cellar from satire to savior tonight for the fourth episode of the current series.

In addition to Baier’s interview with Harris, in which the Veep called out the FNC anchor for continually interrupting her and painting a false picture of Donald Trump’s fascist “enemy within” threats in recent weeks, there was the self-pitying Baier who a day later admitted that in fact the wrong clip of the ex-POTUS had been shown on air. Something that warmed up tonight’s cold open, based on the transcript of the actual interview about both the FNC pratfall and Baier’s interrogation of Joe Biden’s mental facilities.

Even with that offer, there was always the gift from Trump himself, as the former Celebrity Apprentice host weaves between the Totalitarian 101 playbook and pure weirdness. Today saw Trump again in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. In a departure from previous visits, the candidate rambled on about the size of Arnold Palmer’s genitals during his meeting in the late golf legend’s hometown of Latrobe, Keystone State. “When he was in the shower with other professionals, they came out of there and said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,” Trump told the crowd in what his aides said would be the start of his closing arguments as part of the campaign.

Technical problems caused Trump’s microphone to fail during a rally in Detroit on Oct. 18, and the convicted felon spent 20 minutes wandering around the stage as MAGA fans began leaving the venue. With Trump supposedly canceling CBS and NBC interviews, the self-proclaimed exhausted candidate had time to return to his former safe space of Fox & Friends on Friday. Trump being Trump, his time on the couch with Steve Doocy and the other co-hosts was fraught with grievances. Trump asked the Rupert Murdoch channel to stop airing negative ads against him or airing mildly progressive pundits until after Election Day. Then, saying the quiet thing far too loudly, the 78-year-old Trump bragged to the friendly Friends hosts that he would be meeting on air with the 93-year-old Murdoch himself right after the performance.

But until Palmer’s organs became a topic during the campaign, nothing this past week had the comedic appeal of Trump’s October 14 town hall in Oaks, PA with sycophantic South Dakota Governor Kristi L. Noem, where the former president pulled the plug withdrew from softball. asking to dance and air direct for 39 minutes to the tunes of his MAGA playlist. The overtly strange incident occurred after repeated medical emergencies occurred among the public. Suddenly, Trump exclaimed, “Let’s just listen to music… Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?”

No wonder Harris has spent the past week and today in Georgia calling Trump even more “unstable” than usual and mocking his pleas of exhaustion in certain interviews. No wonder Trump’s team is trying to get Nikki Haley to join him on the campaign trail in these final days.

After taking a few weeks off tonight, SNL will no doubt reap just as bountiful from this exciting and crazy race when it returns on November 2. Former SNL writer John Mulaney will be back as host for the sixth time, with chart topper and sometimes politically refreshing wildcard Chappel Roan as musical guest.

No word yet on whether the vice president or running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will add an SNL cameo to their broad media blitz, but there’s still a little time left on the schedule. As for Trump, who hosted the show during the 2016 election and drew too much criticism from almost everyone, and his running mate Ohio Senator JD Vance… I’m not entirely sure if SNL is really on their dance card state.