AP Sources: Kamala Harris to Appear on SNL in Final Episode Before Presidential Election

NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris made an unannounced trip to New York to appear on “Saturday Night Live,” briefly stepping away from the states where she is campaigning with just three days left before the election.

Harris took off on Air Force Two after a campaign stop Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was supposed to go to Detroit, but once the plane took off, aides said it was actually headed to New York.

Her appearance on the show was confirmed by three people familiar with Harris’ plans but not authorized to speak about them publicly. This is the last episode of SNL before Election Day on Tuesday.

Actress Maya Rudolph first played Harris on the series in 2019 and reprized her role this season, doing an accurate impression of the vice president, including calling herself “Momala.”

Rudolph opened the show’s season premiere with the line: “Well, well, well. Look who fell from that coconut tree.” And she joked about keeping President Joe Biden in place.

Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, was played by former actor Andy Samberg, and Biden was played by Dana Carvey, who also famously played then-President George H. W. Bush in the early 1990s.

Rudolph’s performance received acclaim from critics and comedians, including Harris herself.

“Maya Rudolph — I mean, she’s so good,” Harris said last month on ABC’s “The View.” “She had everything: a suit, jewelry, everything!”

Harris added that she was impressed by Rudolph’s “manners.”

Politicians have a long history on SNL, including Harris’ GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, who hosted the show in 2015.

Hillary Clinton was running for president in the 2008 Democratic primaries when she appeared alongside Amy Poehler, who played her on the show, and offered her signature exaggerated cackle. The real Clinton wondered during her appearance, “Am I really laughing like that?”

Clinton returned in 2016, running in a race against Trump that she ultimately lost.

The first sitting president to appear on Saturday Night Live was Republican Gerald Ford, who did so less than a year after the show debuted. Ford appeared on April 17, 1976 and announced the famous opening of the show “Live from New York.”

Barack Obama was still just the Democratic presidential candidate when he emerged in February 2008, and Republican Bob Dole emerged in 1996—just 11 days after losing that year’s election to Democrat Bill Clinton. Dole consoled Norm MacDonald, who played the Kansas senator on the show.

Then there was Tina Fey’s impression of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008—and, in particular, her joke about “I can see Russia from my house.” It was so good that Fey won an Emmy Award. Palin herself appeared on the show that season, a few weeks before the election.

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Long, Miller and Weissert reported from Washington.