Season 42 of Saturday Night Live opened with its much-anticipated parody of the first presidential debate, which pitted Kate McKinnon's Hillary Clinton against Alec Baldwin's pitch-perfect Donald Trump.
In the cold open, Lester Holt, played by Michael Che, asked many of the same questions the two candidates faced Monday night, including how they would create more jobs if elected president.
"I've got a very presidential answer for this," Baldwin's Trump said. "Our jobs are fleeing this country. They're going to Mexico. They're going to Jina. I would stop that. If Hillary knew how, she would have done it already. Period. End of story. I won the debate, I stayed calm, just like I promised, and it is over. Goodnight Hofstra."
Like much of America on debate night, "Clinton" is amazed and amused by some of Trump's answers, his constant sniffling and his whining that the microphone is broken. In the sketch, the Democratic candidate even offered her two minutes of speaking time to Trump so he could spout more inane stuff.
"I have the best judgment and the best temperament," "Trump" said. "She's the one with the bad temperament. She's always screaming, she's constantly lying, her hair is crazy, her face is completely orange except around the eyes where it's white, and when she stops talking her mouth looks like a tiny little butthole."
The sketch also poked fun at how Clinton set her Alicia Machado trap for Trump to step into. Baldwin's Trump responded in a similar fashion as the actual Trump.
"Lester, why are we talking about this woman? We should be talking about the important issues like Rosie O'Donnell and how she's a fat loser, and everyone agrees with me," "Trump" said. "I just wanted to bring that up at a presidential debate right at the end on my own volition, good idea, I did it."
With a full month's worth of episodes to go before Election Day, Baldwin will likely remain a major SNL presence until November 8th (and potentially longer than that).
