This past October 3, Saturday Night Live returned with Alec Baldwin reprising his role as President Donald Trump for the fourth year.
Baldwin appeared in the show's "cold open" alongside Jim Carrey as former Vice President Joe Biden.
You can watch the sketch here:
First Debate Cold Open - SNLwww.youtube.com
Following the show, there was some backlash on conservative social media.
Many felt—even though the sketch was written before President Trump tested positive and was taken to the hospital—it was mean spirited to make fun of him while his health was in danger.
Alec Baldwin commented on the issue in a nine-minute Instagram video, answering questions and digging into the various criticisms of his portrayal.
Baldwin told viewers SNL would not do any sketch they felt was in exceedingly poor taste.
"We only have their word to go by. And if their word had been that he was in serious trouble, then we probably wouldn't have done it. ... I can assure you we wouldn't have done it."
Baldwin continued:
"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 there's a line they won't cross; they never sit there and say 'I wish something happened to him' or 'He died' or whatever. And people who do that, you know, that's not the way it should be."
The actor—who also received criticism from comedy fans for taking a role on the iconic sketch showcase—also said:
"You know, if you don't like me doing it, I get that. I mean, I've heard a lot of that over the years or people who are like, 'Oh, let's get somebody who's a member of the company,' I'm all for that — some other person who's a comedian who's gonna do a more finely etched portrayal of Trump."
"And I'm like, 'Great! If you can find a way to do that in that cold opening in the first five minutes of the show, where we try to light it up and make it pretty bright and pretty fizzy to launch the show, then good for you.'"
Baldwin delivered his entire message with piano music playing in the background.
At one point he acknowledged it, saying:
"By the way, this music is the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, D minor, Opus 15, Sunwook Kim conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden and Myung-Whun Chung playing the piano, who I love. I'm a big Myung-Whun Chung fan."
It seems President Trump remains fair game at Saturday Night Live, at least for the time being.
