The spirits of elections past came to haunt Hillary Clinton on Saturday night, in the forms of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reprising their roles as Sarah Palin and Clinton on a Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live.
After a cold open that restaged the Republican debate from earlier this week – including series veteran Darrell Hammond returning as Donald Trump – the stage turned to a bedroom. Kate McKinnon played Clinton as she changed into her pajamas – a pantsuit – and got into bed.
Giddy about the chaotic state of the Republican field and her campaign’s recent spat with her rival Bernie Sanders, McKinnon’s Clinton mused how well she would sleep that night. Then, in a gust of smoke and laughter, Poehler appeared as Clinton circa 2008.
.@HillaryClinton knows that in this election, candidates must slay. #SNL https://t.co/zdy7YfcyYl
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 20, 2015
This Clinton of Christmas past warned present-day Clinton not to drop her guard, especially not about Sanders and poll numbers. After all: “On Christmas Eve 2007, I was cocky too, and then someone named Barack Obama stumbled out of a soup kitchen with a basketball and a cigarette and stole my life.”
Don’t worry, McKinnon-Clinton reassured Poehler- Clinton. Her biggest rival this time is the “human Birkenstock” – Sanders.
Present Clinton had news for her past incarnation, too. When Poehler’s 2008 Clinton tried to send some emails, McKinnon madly threw the cellphone away, assuring her predecessor that it was for her own good. When Poehler asked “Who’s Benghazi?” McKinnon waxed rueful about the “young, naive girl of 61”.
And when McKinnon-Clinton told Poehler-Clinton that Trump was leading the Republican primary, the past Clinton could not contain herself: “Oh my God, we’re gonna be president!”
Finally, another election ghost appeared: Fey swooped in through another burst of smoke as Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee. She was nonplussed, but not by the time travel.
“Oh geez, it looks like I went through time and space. What the heck! I landed in the bedroom of a lesbian couple!”
Some advice about... something, we suppose?... from Sarah Palin. #SNL https://t.co/qV4ZbK4jAN
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) December 20, 2015
While the Clintons expressed horror at the erstwhile Tea Party darling – Palin went on about teacher’s “fat liberal bucks” and the Latin word “status quo” – the former reality TV star suddenly recalled her own days on the campaign trail with John McCain.
“May he rest in peace, I’m guessin’.”
And she at last recognized Clinton, much to the former secretary of state’s anger.
“You poor thing,” said Fey-Palin. “I heard that after you lost you had to become a secretary.”
