The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission called out Vice President Kamala Harris’ surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” as a violation of the “equal time” rule.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote on X Saturday in response to The Associated Press sharing that Ms. Harris would be making a surprise appearance on the show.
“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,” he said. “Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
Ms. Harris joined actress Maya Rudolph, who usually impersonates her on the show, for a sketch in which they talked about the election.
The Democratic presidential nominee’s surprise appearance was in fact a surprise, since the show’s executive producer, Lorne Michaels, said in September that none of the candidates would be on the show.
“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” Mr. Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter. “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.”
Mr. Carr wrote in his post that “federal law requires that broadcasters provide comparable time and placement to all legally qualified candidates when the Equal Time rule is triggered.”
The Washington Times has reached out to NBC for comment.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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