Saturday Night Live takes a shot at Trump's cabinet picks with a parody of CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper in this week's Cold Open.
December 11, 2016

NBC may be keeping Trump on the payroll as executive producer of The Apprentice, but that hasn't stopped Saturday Night Live from continuing to make a mockery of the incoming Trump administration. No Alec Baldwin in the Cold Open this week. They opened the show by taking a shot at his list of deplorable cabinet picks instead, and imagining the possibility of him picking Breaking Bad's Walter White for head of the DEA:

Saturday Night Live returned this week to poke fun at its network-mate. The program opened with a sketch depicting CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper, as the host interviewed Trump Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway—played by the inimitable Kate McKinnon—about the president-elect’s head-scratching cabinet picks. These include Trump nominating Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA, even though he’s a “fossil fuel advocate that doesn’t believe in climate change,” and Carl’s Jr. CEO Andy Puzder as Secretary of Labor, despite the fact that he opposes a federal minimum wage.

“Kellyanne, it’s almost like Mr. Trump appoints these people specifically to undermine the very agencies they head. Are these bad picks?” asks SNL’s Tapper.

“No, Jake, they are not bad,” replies Conway. “They are alt-good.”

Then comes a bit of breaking news: that President-elect Trump has nominated as head of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) “a high school science teacher from New Mexico by the name of Walter White.” Cue actor Bryan Cranston as White—beige jacket, green shirt, spectacles, pork pie hat and all.

Conway mentions to Tapper how White was “highly recommended by Steve Bannon,” the president-elect’s chief strategist—as well as an alleged white nationalist and former CEO of the “alt-right” publication Breitbart.

You see, White says he met Bannon “under the comments section at Breibart,” and that he was “pretty surprised he tracked me down because I’ve been off the grid for a while.” “I know the DEA better than anyone—inside and out,” he adds.

The TV meth kingpin also claims he’s a fan of Trump’s. “I like his style. He acts first, and then asks questions later. I also like that wall he wants to build. Nothing comes in from Mexico, which means a lot less competition for the rest of us,” he says.

Plus, as Conway mentions, White is a supporter of small businesses. “Oh, absolutely. Donald Trump and I agree: It’s time to make America cook again,” says White. “We want to fill this nation with red, white, and a whole lot of blue.

God help us all.

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