President Donald Trump on Sunday again blasted “Saturday Night Live” and what he called “one sided coverage” on networks like NBC, hinting at legal action to battle “Democratic spin machines.”
“A REAL scandal is the one sided coverage, hour by hour, of networks like NBC & Democrat spin machines like Saturday Night Live,” Trump tweeted on Sunday morning. “It is all nothing less than unfair news coverage and Dem commercials. Should be tested in courts, can’t be legal? Only defame & belittle! Collusion?”
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1074302851906707457
It’s not clear why the president felt that an entertainment show like “Saturday Night Live” constituted “news coverage” or what legal grounds he would have to block networks from acting since Ronald Reagan’s FCC in 1987 eliminated the fairness doctrine that required networks to provide balanced coverage of political issues.
Saturday night’s episode of “SNL,” the last new show of 2018, saw Alec Baldwin return to the show to play the president in a sketch that spoofed the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” showing Trump what would have happened if he hadn’t won the 2016 election.
“SNL” cast members played members of Trump’s cabinet, with Sarah Sanders doing public relations for Facebook in the alternate timeline and Vice President Mike Pence getting a post-politics job as a DJ.
“Wow, everyone looks so different,” Baldwin’s Trump said. “What are those things on their faces?”
To which Kenan Thompson’s angel responded, “Those are smiles.”
The real Trump, meanwhile, pivoted on Twitter from suggesting that “SNL”‘s satire should be “tested in the courts” to lashing out against his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison last week for violating campaign finance laws by paying off two women — former adult-film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal — to stay silent about alleged sexual encounters with Trump (he has denied having affairs with either woman).
“Remember, Michael Cohen only became a “Rat” after the FBI did something which was absolutely unthinkable & unheard of until the Witch Hunt was illegally started,” Trump tweeted. “They BROKE INTO AN ATTORNEY’S OFFICE! Why didn’t they break into the DNC to get the Server, or Crooked’s [Hillary Clinton’s] office?”
Cohen replied to Trump’s Twitter attacks in a speech given during his sentencing.
“Recently, the President tweeted a statement calling me ‘weak,’ and he was correct, but for a much different reason than he was implying,” Cohen said. “It was because time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds rather than to listen to my own inner voice and my moral compass.”