Republican presidential candidate former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley delivers remarks at her primary night rally at the Grappone Conference 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 primary opponent Donald Trump a series of zingers in the cold open.
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, delivered a sharp joke that referenced Haley’s famously flubbed answer when she was recently asked about the cause of the Civil War.
“Had a blast tonight on SNL,” Haley tweeted after her appearance.
“Know it was past Donald’s bedtime so looking forward to the stream of unhinged tweets in the a.m.”
Haley’s cameo came in the middle of the first skit at a pretend CNN town hall where “Trump,” played by James Austin Johnson, was being asked a series of questions by 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 whoop when Haley stood up.
“My question is, why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?” Haley asked “Trump.”
“Trump” exclaimed, “Oh, my god, it’s her! The woman who was in charge of security on Jan. 6. It’s Nancy Pelosi!”
“Barkley” pointed out that was not Pelosi.
“Are you doing OK, Donald? You might need a mental competency test,” Haley said.
“Trump” quickly assured her that he “aced” that test and said, “They told me I’m 100% mental and I’m competent because I’m a man.”
He added that women “should never run our economy. Women are terrible with money.”
“In fact, a woman I know recently asked me for $83 million,” he said, referencing the amount of monetary damages a New York civil jury recently awarded writer E. Jean Carroll for the real Trump defaming her after she alleged he had raped her.
Haley cracked, “And you spent $50 million in your own legal fees. Do you need to borrow some money?”
“Trump” then went 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 the star of “The Sixth Sense.”
“Nikki Haley Joel Osman, we call her,” he said. ” ‘Sixth Sense,’ remember that one: ‘I see dead people.’ “
Haley then said, “Yeah, that’s what voters will say if they see you and Joe [Biden] on the ballot.”
“Trump” moaned “that’s not nice,” and insisted he was always nice to Haley except when he implied that she was not born in the United States.
“Even though you were born in South Carolina, and I’m gonna beat you in your state,” he said.
“And did you win your home state in the last election?” Haley asked.
“Trump” replied, “I won Staten Island!”
“And the parts of Long Island where the fist fights happen, where they get out of the cars if you honk your horn 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 jibe when Edeberi, a star of the FX on Hulu 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?’ ” Edeberi asked.
Haley replied, “Yep, I probably should have said that the first time.”
In December, at a New Hampshire town hall, Haley was asked what she thought caused the Civil War.
She did not say “slavery” at first, instead answering that it was about “the freedoms of what people could and couldn’t do.”
When her questioner told her it was “astonishing” she had not used the word slavery in her answer, Haley said, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”
Haley was widely criticized for that answer and a day later said that “of course” that war was about slavery.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent of NBC and CNBC.
