Actor Alec Baldwin is defending portraying President Donald Trump during āSaturday Night Liveāsā (SNL) premiere over the weekend where he mocked the president over COVID-19. The skit came as the president is infected with the virus.
While noting that the goal is never to āsink the ship,ā Baldwin said in an Instagram video posted on Sunday, āIf there was ever the suggestion that Trump was truly, gravely ill and people said, āTrump is really in trouble,ā I bet you everything I have that we wouldnāt even get near that in terms of the content on the show.ā
He continued, āWe only have the words of the White House itself and the people who work there to go on, and all of them have been saying heās not in any danger,ā Baldwin said in an Instagram video posted on Sunday.
The actor said that if there were any indication Trump was in āserious troubleā then they would not have done it, ābut thatās not the case.ā
He added:
āYou have to have a very good reason to avoid that topicality-wise. And nobody thought they were mocking somebodyās illness. There are a lot of people out there who have the deepest amount of animosity I could possibly calculate in my adult life toward Trump, but thereās a line we wonāt cross.ā
See Baldwinās video below:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CF7fQdnjVW7/?utm_source=ig_embed
The SNL premiere featured Baldwin as Trump and actor Jim Carrey portraying Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The cold open featured the two recreating the first presidential debate that occurred on Sept. 29.
āThe China virus has been very mean to me by being a hoax and that statement will not come back to haunt me later this week,ā Baldwin said during the SNL cold open.
See the video below:
Carrey has expressed his distaste of the president, including recently blasting Trumpās drive-by on Sunday outside of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
https://twitter.com/JimCarrey/status/1313052559674834944
During the cold open, Carrey, playing Biden, said to the audience, āYou can trust me because I believe in science and karma. Now just imagine if science and karma could somehow team up to send us all a message about how dangerous this virus can be.ā
He added, āIām not saying I want it to happen. Just imagine it did. So this November, please get on the Biden train, which is literally a commuter train to Delaware. And we can all make America not actively on fire again.ā
