\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSaturday Night Live<\/em>\u2018s cold open kicked off with reporters hounding a faux Karoline Leavitt and President Donald Trump about the Epstein files. <\/p>\n \n\tAshley Padilla portrayed Leavitt at the White House press briefing while James Austin Johnson returned to his usual post as Trump, where the two took questions from journalists surrounding the topic, specifically in reference to new emails that were released this week. <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOkay, well I think we definitely need to start with the 20,000 Epstein emails,\u201d Chloe Fineman said as CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins. \u201cWhy does President Trump\u2019s name appear in so many of them?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou know you suck, right?\u201d Padilla\u2019s Leavitt said. \u201cLook, the only thing these emails prove is that President Trump did nothing wrong. If anything, his crime was loving too much.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tJohnson\u2019s Trump then hit the stage, noting, \u201cI am hiding almost nothing, just enough to make it extremely suspicious. But let me ask you a question: If there was something incriminating about me in the files, then why would I cover them up?\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tOne reporter answered, \u201cWait, isn\u2019t that exactly why you would cover them up?\u201d Johnson\u2019s Trump continued, \u201cOkay, let me go again. If I was innocent, wouldn\u2019t I just release all the files?\u201d <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYes!\u201d another reporter replied, as Johnson\u2019s Trump explained that the \u201cbarely knew\u201d Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cJeffrey Epstein, I barely knew the guy, okay, as evidenced by the thousands of pictures of us together dancing and grinding our teeth at various parties, always leering and pointing at something just off camera, probably a book we\u2019re excited to read,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cOkay, what about the specific email where Epstein said that Trump was the dog that hasn\u2019t barked?\u201d one journalist asked, which prompted Johnson\u2019s Trump to respond, \u201cOkay, first of all, I\u2019m not a dog. I\u2019m more of a cub or possibly an otter. Definitely not a twink. I think that\u2019s clear, not a twink, right. Maybe twunk. You know, gays have words for everything, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe continued, \u201cSecond, I thought Megyn Kelly made a terrific point this week. She said Epstein\u2019s not a pedophile. Terrific thing to just say out of nowhere. Great job, Megyn.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo, you said you kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago, but he said he was quote, \u2018never a member,’\u201d noted the final reporter.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYeah, I said I kicked Jeffrey out because he was a pedophile, but then I also said I didn\u2019t know he did anything wrong. So it\u2019s kind of hard to square that circle until you realize that Trump exists across many timelines,\u201d Johnson\u2019s Trump responded. \u201cIt\u2019s the Trump multiverse theory. We just happen to be living in the worst possible one.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tLater, Glen Powell performed his opening monologue, where he shared a sentimental story about his ties to the late night series. He explained that he was supposed to host SNL<\/em> four years ago, but the opportunity was shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic shifting back the release of Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen Powell initially learned that he was supposed to appear as host, \u201cI was on a porch with my family, and we just all lost our minds,\u201d he said, adding that a UPS driver arrived at their home at the exact same time.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe were jumping up and down celebrating, and a UPS driver happened to be delivering a package at that exact same moment, and he was like, \u2018What is going on?’\u201d Powell recounted. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018I\u2019m hosting SNL<\/em>,\u2019 and he was like, \u2018Are you serious?’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPowell and his family snapped a photo with the UPS driver to commemorate the moment. \u201cBut then my dream got taken away. Top Gun<\/em> got delayed because of COVID, so SNL<\/em> had to take their offer back,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSo I didn\u2019t end up hosting, which means for four years, this UPS driver was just going around saying, \u2018Glenn Powell is a liar,’\u201d Powell joked. \u201cSo now I\u2019m here hosting. It feels amazing. But what feels even better is proving to this UPS driver that I am not crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tPowell then revealed that he flew the UPS driver, whose name is Mitch, out to attend SNL<\/em> to assure him he wasn\u2019t \u201ca liar.\u201d He brought Mitch up on stage, and the two snapped a photo together to further celebrate his dream becoming true.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cLook, I had to wait my entire life, plus four years to be here, but if I have learned anything, it is that the best things in life don\u2019t happen overnight,\u201d Powell said. \u201cAnd no one knows that better than UPS!\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tSaturday night marked Powell\u2019s hosting debut, though he previously made a brief cameo during Sydney Sweeney\u2019s March 2024 SNL<\/em> appearance, where she joked about rumors of a romance between the two amid their Anyone But You<\/em> press tour.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Running Man<\/em> actor served as the final SNL<\/em> host of November alongside musical guest (and recent Grammy nominee) Olivia Dean, following the month\u2019s former leads in Miles Teller and Nikki Glaser. Other hosts of season 51 so far include Bad Bunny,\u00a0Amy Poehler\u00a0and\u00a0Sabrina Carpenter. <\/p>\n \n\tMelissa McCarthy will next host on Dec. 6. <\/p>\n \n\tMore to come.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saturday Night Live\u2018s cold open kicked off with reporters hounding a faux Karoline Leavitt and President Donald Trump about the Epstein files. Ashley Padilla portrayed Leavitt at the White House press briefing while James Austin Johnson returned to his usual post as Trump, where the two took questions from journalists surrounding the topic, specifically in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[8435,3813,3703,132,446,5949,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-33909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-addresses","9":"tag-emails","10":"tag-epstein","11":"tag-live","12":"tag-night","13":"tag-saturday","14":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}