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Nov 4, 2024

Republicans WEEP Over Harris' SNL Appearance

Republican commissioner on the FCC’s five-person governing body slammed NBC for having Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live.
  • 8 minutes
On Saturday. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live, which has sparked major concerns with the Republican base over the FCC and equal time rules. Now, we can't show you the clip due to copyright, but Harris made [00:00:15] a brief cameo alongside Maya Rudolph during Saturday's cold open. You can see that here. As you can see, Harris played herself as the mirror image of Rudolph's version of her. It's nice to see you, Kamala, Harris told Rudolph with a broad grin [00:00:32] she kept throughout the sketch. And I'm just here to remind you, you got this. In sync, the two said supporters need to keep Kamala and Carrie. Onela declared that they share each other's belief in the promise of America and delivered the signature. [00:00:48] Live from New York. It's Saturday night. According to the AP, the appearance was only confirmed by Harris's team moments before she went live. The vice president arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, where SNL tapes shortly after 8 p.m.. [00:01:05] Enough time for a quick rehearsal before the show aired live at 11:30 p.m.. It was the final SNL episode before Election Day. She left immediately after the opening segment and told reporters it was fun as she boarded her plane for Michigan. Following the appearance, Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr [00:01:24] slammed NBC for the appearance, saying NBC was attempting to give Harris a leg up by not offering Trump or third party candidates a similar spot. Take a look. Yeah, look. This appears to be a clear and blatant [00:01:39] effort by NBC to evade the requirements of federal law, in particular the FCC's equal time provision. I mean, look, America's broadcasters have a very special privilege. It's a privilege they were given originally for free, which is access [00:01:55] to a public resource, the airwaves. In exchange, they have certain obligations. One of them is an equal time rule. This has been on the books for decades. If you give a candidate for office free airtime, you have to offer a comparable time in program to all other legally qualified candidates. [00:02:13] The FCC's equal time rule. It requires American radio and television broadcast stations to provide equal access to competing political candidates. The rules do not apply to cable channels or other video content, including podcasts or social media. [00:02:28] So if Trump were to request equal time from NBC, the broadcaster would have to provide it before the election. Now, Carr also went on a tweet bender making note of Trump's 2016 guest host spot and how it drew anger back then. In the 2016 cycle, President Obama's FCC chair made clear that the agency [00:02:48] would enforce the equal time rule. When candidate Trump went on SNL, NBC stations publicly filed equal opportunity notices to ensure that all other qualifying candidates could obtain equal time if they sought it. Stations did the same thing when Clinton appeared on SNL. [00:03:05] Carr also made note of SNL head Lorne Michaels saying last month, No Trump or Harris cameos would happen due to equal time provisions. Just weeks ago, Lorne Michaels said they they would not be bringing any of the candidates on due to election and equal time laws. [00:03:22] You can't bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions, Michaels said. It's unclear what made Michaels change his mind. However, NBC did file a notice with the FCC and did provide Trump with his equal time in the notice filed Sunday. [00:03:39] NBC said Harris appeared without charge on SNL for one minute and 30s. The broadcaster provided Trump airtime Sunday. CNN's Brian Stelter reported giving the former president an opportunity to directly address viewers during the NASCAR 2024 Cup playoff race. [00:03:57] Jank. It seems like much ado about nothing, but still an opportunity for the right to find something to build a grievance around. Man, they love to cry. All right, so first of all, where does Bernie Sanders go to get billions of dollars in free media coverage that the networks robbed him of? [00:04:14] I saw the major party candidates all over those networks in 2016 and 2020, especially in 2016. Do you know how much time ABC spent on Bernie Sanders in 2015? It was as he was miraculously closing a 40 point lead that Hillary Clinton had. [00:04:33] They gave him seven seconds of airtime in all of 2015. As he's doing one of the most miraculous, rises in American politics. So I think these guys are monumentally full of crap. I don't think they ever enforce this to anyone but the major party candidates [00:04:50] after they cry and complain. The Brandon Carr is a Republican, so all of a sudden he's all in his emotions over it. And so. And how about the third party guys? All right. Jill Stein's in the race. Where's her two minutes on NBC? Go ahead. [00:05:06] I thought you said it applied to everybody. Where's her? Two minutes. Here's what's going to happen. NBC is going to go yeah, right. Third party candidates. You guys aren't even corporate candidates. And Carr and all. The FCC isn't going to say anything about it at all. So this is a giant fluffing of the establishment candidates [00:05:24] and giving them more and more free airtime to the detriment of every real populist candidate. And for the Trump guys, they're cutting about this to their crying election interference. Election interference. So how about when you got the SNL appearance in 2016? [00:05:39] How come you weren't crying about it then? How come you didn't file any FCC complaints then? How come it wasn't election interference back then? Oh, when it's done on your behalf, you love it when it's against you all of a sudden election interference. And, guys, the media is not election interference. [00:05:57] Mainstream media is screwed over every progressive candidate that I have ever supported, including myself, including Bernie Sanders. But we didn't say like, oh no, we should actually win. I should be in office, Bernie Sanders should be president. No mainstream media lying, right wing media lying. [00:06:14] Being biased is part of the obstacle course that we have to run through. You don't get to say, hey, I didn't like what the media said. So election interference. That's not election interference. It's ridiculous. Is Donald Trump ever, ever going to stop crying. [00:06:31] And the answer is definitely no. Because he is a spoiled little baby and all he knows is how to cry. But also the SNL thing. In 2016, Trump hosted Hillary just had a cameo during a skit. So I mean, were they upset that it was unfair to her? [00:06:51] Along your the point that you made oh, it's election interference now. Trump had an entire episode. She just had a brief cameo. So there's a if they're going by minutes and seconds, which Brandon Carr spent the weekend tweeting about. It has to match even down to the second. [00:07:08] I mean, what what's what's the big deal? Where was that then? Why aren't you upset on Hillary's behalf? So it's just kind of ridiculous, especially that he's in this position to influence the FEC, FCC. It's just so disingenuous. It doesn't matter. But I did find I did find it funny that the one minute that he got was during [00:07:27] a NASCAR event, just like, all right, I mean, look, there's people I'm sure good people on, on all sides who like NASCAR. But are you really finding new voters on in a NASCAR event? But NBC put out a statement saying that Chase Oliver will also get two minutes in prime time, that he's a libertarian candidate, [00:07:45] and Jill Stein will also get two minutes. All right. They put out no such statement and Brandon Carr put out no such statement. The FCC put out no such statement because they're all giant liars. Those people will not get any fair time. Equal time. All this is a giant scam. [00:08:02] Those networks love establishment candidates and major party candidates like Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. So this is a big nothing burger other than Donald Trump's tears creating that burger for you. Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it. [00:08:17] Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:08:34] and specials right after they air. 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