Nikki Haley should have known better.
If she was ever serious about challenging Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, the former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor should have known the audience she’s trying to reach.
And it doesn’t exactly overlap with “Saturday Night Live.”
But that’s where Haley turned up on Saturday, in a cold open that flopped nearly as badly as the sketch show’s disastrous attack on Rep. Elise Stefanik’s exposure of tolerance for anti-Semitism at major American universities back in December.
The skit had all the earmarks of a standard “SNL” offering lately — it was heavy-handed, it was spectacularly not funny, and, of course, it bashed Trump.
But it also had Haley, who not only attacked the front-runner for the GOP nomination to curry favor with an audience that despises them both, but who also chose to make a fool of herself in the process.
Check it out here. Haley’s appearance comes at about the 5-minute mark:
As an act of desperation it was awful. With the Republican South Carolina primary coming Feb. 24, RealClearPolitics’ most recent polling average shows Trump is beating Haley among GOP voters 53.7 percent to 26.7 percent — a spread of nearly 30 points.
Was this a bad move by Haley?
Haley and her team needed to do something to make the contest a contest.
As an act of futility it was even worse. Making generalizations about any group of Americans is dangerous, but when it comes to conservatives and Republicans — the kind of voters who are most likely to turn out for a GOP primary — it’s a good bet that it’s not heavy on the kind of people whose politics match the demographic of a whooping “Saturday Night Live” audience.
(An “SNL” audience is basically an audience of “The View,” just younger, with more testosterone and possibly more stoned.)
In an obvious attempt to placate that audience, Haley allowed herself to be made a fool of just before the sketch ended, with a joke about her idiotically controversial answer to a question about the causes of the Civil War. So for Haley to try to resuscitate a flailing campaign by going on national television to abase herself in front of an audience of leftists is simply suicidal.
And the social media reaction showed — from both the right and the left.
On the right, Haley was bashed for attacking the GOP front-runner who is roundly despised by exactly the kind of liberals who pretend “SNL” is still funny.
CRINGE: SNL brought on Nikki Haley to bash Donald Trump
Yeah — she’s totally a Republican and not just another Anti-Trump liberal..
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 4, 2024
SNL brought on Nikki Haley to bash Donald Trump
Are we sure she’s a republican?
pic.twitter.com/dwby6DBym8— Truth Army (@trutharmyfilms) February 4, 2024
SNL endorsing Nikki Haley in the GOP primary is all I need to know to realize Trump is the right choice. https://t.co/bZmSMpM0OL
— @amuse (@amuse) February 4, 2024
Meanwhile, on the left, the more deranged elements attacked “SNL” for having Haley on at all. These are pretty fair examples.
Nikki Haley just appeared in the cold open for SNL.
Saturday Night Live sure does have a long track record of comedy-washing hateful conservatives.
— Charlotte Clymer (@cmclymer) February 4, 2024
Why is Lorne Michaels platforming Nikki Haley on SNL to make a joke out of her minimizing slavery, the most inhumane and immoral event that’s ever happened in American history?
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) February 4, 2024
Most pathetically, Haley herself called the appearance a “blast.”
“I see dead people.” That’s exactly what voters will think if this race is between Trump and Biden in the fall.
Had a blast tonight on SNL! Know it was past Donald’s bedtime so looking forward to the stream of unhinged tweets in the a.m. pic.twitter.com/W43LlPOoi2
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 4, 2024
She also indicated it was all meant to get a rise out of Trump on social media.
“Had a blast tonight on SNL!” she wrote. “Know it was past Donald’s bedtime so looking forward to the stream of unhinged tweets in the a.m.”
The answer wasn’t unhinged at all.
Check it out here:
In politics, as in life, there are few absolute victories and few absolute defeats, but there’s no question that this appearance was an absolute disaster for Haley.
As the New Hampshire primary results showed, her biggest strength in the Republican nomination process is voters who aren’t even Republicans but are allowed to vote in GOP primaries. (Trump voters are actually Republicans.)
Even if Haley thought that was enough to win the nomination — which it’s not, by a long shot — does she think those voters are going to stay in the GOP fold come November?
They’re not.
So, Haley’s appearance on “SNL” to mock the overwhelming favorite for the Republican nomination for the amusement of liberals was bad. The fact that she abjectly abased herself in the process was worse.
And from a purely tactical point of view, the fact that she did it all for nothing is the worst of all.
She should have known better.
The fact that she didn’t says it all.
