Piscopo: 'SNL' handing Trump 2020 election
Robert De Niro and Alec Baldwin returned to "Saturday Night Live" to take on the conclusion of the Mueller Report.
During the cold open, Robert Mueller (Robert De Niro), William Barr (Aidy Bryant) and President Trump (Alex Baldwin) interpreted the report from their own perspectives.
In the performance, Mueller admitted that his office wasn’t able to reach an ultimate conclusion regarding obstruction of justice and Barr responded: “But I have.”
“And my conclusion is that Trump is as clean as a whistle,” he added.
Then Trump’s response: “Free, at last, free at last!”
But longtime actor and comedian and “SNL” alum Joe Piscopo said the show should have been more fair and balanced during its lead sketch.
“If you watch the show, you went into it, you saw Beck Bennett doing Vladimir Putin,” he told Maria Bartiromo during an appearance on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria” on Monday.
“And they had a sketch of Putin’s generals going after Putin because the Mueller report came out and said he, Putin, did not own Donald Trump, and they were very, very upset about it. That sketch I think should have led off the show.”
However, Piscopo was impressed by De Niro’s take on Mueller.
“Did you see De Niro play Mueller?” he asked. “I thought it was a great impression. I thought De Niro was going to lose it though.”
“I thought he was just going to go off and start going after the president again, you know, into one of his characters. 'You talking to me? Are you talking to me?'” Piscopo said while portraying De Niro's role as Travis Bickle from the 1976 movie "Taxi Driver."
Piscopo also said the show is a success because of it eccentricity.
“The show has been strong for so many years... is that all [because of producer and writer Lorne Michaels]?" Bartiromo asked.
“That’s a good question,” he replied. “I think it’s always anti-establishment… when I was on the show we did anti-establishment — I would parody Ronald Reagan.”
And in Piscopo’s opinion “SNL” should get credit this year for other funny sketches.
“Jussie Smollett — they weren’t supposed to do it — they did it, a very funny sketch,” he said.
However, he also thinks there could have been a great episode about Democrat Joe Biden.
“Where was the Joe Biden material man?” he said. “It’s like Joe Biden is like turning into like again Dracula, I mean hovering behind women you know… there’s a sketch that writes itself no?”
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Piscopo said it would be nice if Trump extended an invite to the “SNL” cast to visit the White House, but he also put the onus on the show to give a “fair and balanced comedy overview of President Trump” or “he’s going to walk away with this in 2020.”
“I think that the president, it would be so awesome if President Trump reached out to “SNL,” brought the cast down the way Ronald Reagan invited me down to the White House, I know I’m dreaming here,” he said. “But, you know, what funny is funny, but it’s time to join together here because the president is doing a great job.”
