Live from New York, it’s a presidential candidate who wins every vote in the last days before the election.

vice-president Kamala Harris made a surprise trip to New York on Saturday to appear in “ Saturday evening live,” briefly stepping away from the battleground states where she furiously campaigned in favor of the iconic sketch series.

Harris left on Air Force Two after an early evening campaign stop in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was scheduled to fly to Detroit, but once in the air, aides announced she would have an unscheduled layover and the plane landed at LaGuardia Airport in Queens.

Harris arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, where SNL is recording, shortly after 8 p.m., enough time for a quick rehearsal before the live broadcast at 11:30 p.m. This is the last episode of SNL before Election Day on Tuesday.

Neither the White House nor her campaign confirmed her participation on the show, but it was confirmed by three people familiar with Harris’ plans who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Actor Maya Rudolph first played Harris on the series in 2019 and resumed his role this season, doing a perfect impression of the vice president, including calling herself “Momala.”

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

Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoffwas played by veteran actor Andy Samberg and Biden is played by Dana Carvey, who also famously played President George HW Bush in the early 1990s.

Rudolph’s performance received critical and comedy acclaim, including by Harris herself.

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

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

Jason Miller, senior advisor to the former president and Republican candidate Donald Trumpexpressed surprise that Harris would appear on SNL given what he called her unflattering portrayal on the show. Asked if Trump had been invited to appear, he replied: “I don’t know. Probably not.

Politicians nevertheless have a long history on SNL, including Trump, who hosted the show in 2015 — although appearing so close to Election Day is unusual.

Hillary Clinton was a candidate in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary when she appeared alongside Amy Poehler, who played her on the show and was known for breaking into a signature exaggerated laugh. The real Clinton asked herself during her appearance: “Am I really laughing like that?”

Clinton returned in 2016, when she ran against Trump in a race she ultimately lost.

The first sitting president to appear on SNL was Republican Gerald Ford, who did so less than a year after the show began. Ford appeared in an April 1976 episode hosted by his publicist, Ron Nessen, and said the show’s famous opening line: “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night.”

Barack Obama, then an Illinois senator, appeared alongside Poehler impersonating Clinton in 2007, and Republican Bob Dole was on the show in November 1996, just 11 days after losing that election. that year against Bill Clinton. Dole consoled Norm Macdonald, who played the Kansas senator.

Then there was the impression Tina Fey gave in 2008 about vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin — and particularly her joke that “I can see Russia from my house.” It was so good that Fey eventually won an Emmy, and Palin herself appeared on the show in October, in the weeks leading up to the election.

Long, Miller and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.