Republican presidential candidate former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley delivers remarks at her primary night rally at the Grappone Convention Center on January 23, 2024 in Concord, New Hampshire.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Nikki Haley made a surprise — and funny — appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” where she asked a cast member playing her Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump for a series of cold-blooded jabs.
A beaming Haley also delivered the NBC show’s signature line, “Live from New York, It’s Saturday Night!” at the end of the skit right after the show’s guest host, actor Ayo Edeberi, made a sharp joke referencing Haley’s famous scam when asked recently about the cause of the Civil War.
“I had a blast tonight on SNL,” Haley wrote after her performance.
“Know that it’s past Donald’s bedtime so I’m looking forward to the stream of independent tweets in the morning”
Haley’s cameo came in the middle of the first skit at a mock CNN town hall where “Trump,” played by James Austin Johnson, fielded a series of questions from audience members.
Town hall host Charles Barkley, played by Kenan Thompson, said, “Our next question comes from someone who describes herself as a concerned South Carolina voter.”
The live audience let out a scream when Haley stood up.
“My question is, why don’t you talk to Nikki Haley?” Haley asked Trump.
“Trump” exclaimed, “Oh my God, it’s her! The woman who was in charge of security on January 6th. It’s Nancy Pelosi!”
“Barkley” pointed out that it wasn’t Pelosi.
“Are you okay, Donald? You might need a brain test,” Haley said.
“Trump” quickly assured her that she “passed” that test and said: “They told me I’m 100% mental and I’m capable because I’m a man.”
She added that women “should never run our economy. Women are terrible with money.”
“Actually, a woman I know recently sued me for $83 million,” he said, referring to the amount of money a New York jury recently awarded author E. Jean Carroll for the real Trump who defamed her after she claimed that rape .
Haley said, “And you spent $50 million on your own legal fees. Do you need to borrow some money?”
“Trump” then launched into a Trump-like search for nicknames for Haley — “Nikki-Tikki-Tavi,” “Nikki Don’t Lose that Number” — before landing on a mashup of her name with his star’s ” The Sixth Sense”. .”
“Nikki Haley Joel Osman, we call her,” she said. “Sixth sense”, remember this: “I see dead people”. “
Hayley then said: “Yeah, that’s what the voters will say if they see you and Joe [Biden] on the ballot”.
“Trump” whined “that’s not cool” and insisted he’s always been nice to Haley except when he implied she wasn’t born in the United States.
“Even though you were born in South Carolina, and I’m going to beat you in your home state,” he said.
“And you won your home state in the last election?” Hayley asked.
“Trump,” he replied, “I won Staten Island!”
“And the parts of Long Island where the punches happen, where they get out of the cars if you honk at them,” said Trump, who lost his home state of New York in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
But then it was Haley’s turn to be the target of a pointed gamble when Edeberi, star of the Hulu FX series “The Bear,” stood up and asked her a question.
“I was just curious, what would you say was the main cause of the Civil War, um, and do you think it starts with an ‘s’ and ends with a ‘lavery’? Endebury asked.
Haley replied, “Yeah, I probably should have said that the first time.”
In December, at a town hall in New Hampshire, Haley was asked what she believed caused the Civil War.
He didn’t say “slavery” at first, but answered that it was about “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.”
When the questioner told her it was “surprising” she hadn’t used the word slavery in her answer, Hayley said: “What do you want me to say about slavery?”
Haley was widely criticized for that response and a day later said that “of course” the war was about slavery.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC and CNBC.