The Trump administration has provided Saturday Night Live with a larger-than-usual cast of characters to impersonate. Highlights have included Alec Baldwin as the US president, Melissa McCarthy as former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh, Robert De Niro as special counsel Robert Mueller, and Bill Hader as Anthony Scaramucci.
Last night (March 2), Ben Stiller reprised his role as Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, who testified before Congress on Wednesday (Feb. 27).
Stiller, playing Cohen with a credibly thick New York accent and an appropriate dash of absurdity, quoted from the Natalie Imbruglia hit “Torn” by way of explaining his regret over previously lying under oath.
Bill Hader, a former cast member, stole the skit as Jim Jordan, a Republican representative from Ohio, who had a bit of a dustup with Cohen at the hearing. Hader’s slightly unhinged performance cast the proceedings as a circus, in which Republican support for the president becomes a political contortion act.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez really won the skit, though, while barely being featured at all. “Let’s take a break, and then Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will probably do a dance, is that right?” Kenan Thompson says, playing representative Elijah Cummings. “No. I was going to ask, like, carefully researched questions,” replies Melissa Villaseñor, playing Ocasio-Cortez.
The quick exchange highlights the amount of media attention the young Democrat has received, and her ability to stay above the fray, asking consistently tough, well-researched questions.