Saturday Night Live finally got somewhat funny again with a sketch roasting Presiden Joe Biden, doing so in a sketch in which Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash and, in an attempt to defend Biden, makes absurd claims about Biden acting heroically and with vigor. Secretary Mayorkas, responding to the sketch, desperately defended Biden and his health, though without going so far as is portrayed in the sketch.
As background, Biden visited the border on Thursday, February 29, and was photographed with Border Patrol agents and along the border. The visit was likely a response to criticism of his seemingly open border, criticism made all the harsher in the wake of Laken Riley’s murder at the hands of an illegal immigrant who crossed into America during the Biden presidency.
The SNL skit used that trip as a starting point, with it being what Mayorkas discusses with Bash. In the skit, Mayorkas attempts to refute claims that Biden was moving in a slow, elderly manner at the border by claiming that, rather, Biden was carrying out incredible, superhuman feats of both strength and agility while declaring a need to defend the border.
In the skit, Mayorkas says, “Behind closed doors, he’s a dynamo. He went into beast mode. He said, ‘We gotta tighten this border. Look how easy I can cross it.’ Then he parkoured up to the top of the border wall. He front-flipped into the Rio Grande and came back up with a fish in his mouth.”
Mayorkas then attempted to refute SNL’s characterization of Biden during an interview on CNN on Sunday morning, March 3, with Bash. During that interview, Mayorkas tried to brush off the skit as being unserious “comic relief,” not satire grounded in a very obvious truth. “We all need a little comic relief now and then,” Mayorkas said.
Bash, for her part, pointed out that what Americans are seeing and thinking and what the Biden Administration are claiming are very different. According to her, Americans see the president act in a certain way and are, as a result, concerned about his age and physical health, while, meanwhile, the administration officials claim that Biden is in great shape.
Mayorkas then did exactly that, responding to her questions about Biden’s health by giving a very cheery take on things. Responding to her point that Americans are concerned, he said, “They should spend a bit of time with Joe Biden like I have done.” Continuing with an anecdote, he then said, “I prepare a lot for meetings with him and engagements with him because he’s remarkably detail-oriented, probing and operationally focused.”
Watch the SNL skit here:
And watch Mayorkas’ appearance on CNN here:
During the interview, Bash also asked if the Biden Administration was deliberately flooding America with illegal immigrants. She asked, “Is it the policy of the Biden administration to allow as many migrants to come across the border in order to change the political dynamics, the electoral dynamics, of America?” Mayorkas denied that that is the case.
Featured image credit: By U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Joins US President Joe Biden at FEMA Headquarters, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=136857859
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