FCC Commissioner: Harris ‘SNL’ Appearance Violated Equal Time Rule

Kamala Harris joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” this weekend to boost her campaign.

The appearance, however, may have violated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules regarding equal time for candidates during a major election.

Commissioner Brendan Carr has called this a “blatant” effort to evade the FCC rules.

Can’t Do That

Harris appeared with Maya Rudolph, who impersonates Harris during the show’s skits.

Harris took a shot at Trump, who had some difficulty opening up a truck door when he was pushing the “garbage” narrative earlier in the week from Biden.

Harris told Rudolph, “I’m just here to remind you, you got this, because you can do something your opponent can’t do — you can open doors.”

Lorne Michaels, the executive producer of the show, knows the rules, having previously stated that neither candidate would be on the show down the stretch because of the FCC rules.

He stated, “You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions.

“You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states, and that becomes really complicated.”

Commission Carr was livid after the appearance, stating, “This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.

“The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election. Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”

Carr also appeared on Fox News, stating, "This has all the appearances of, at least some leadership at NBC, at SNL, making clear that they wanted to weigh in in favor of one candidate before the election.

“That's exactly why, for decades, we've had an equal time rule on the book, is to prevent that. Because remember, broadcasters are placed in a special position of trust.

“They're not just like any other person with a soapbox on the corner. They have a license from the federal government that obligates them to operate in the public interest.”

NBC News has since filed an Equal Time notice with the FCC, but with only one day to go before the election, it is unlikely Trump and the other candidates will be able to take advantage of it.

The notice stated, "Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate for president in the 2024 national election, appeared without charge on NBC's ‘Saturday Night Live’ (SNL) for a total period of 1 minute and 30 seconds on November 2, 2024.”

Make no mistake about it… this was NBC putting its thumb on the scale to help Harris at the last possible second.