But at the end of the skit, the episode’s host, actress Ayo Edebiri, popped up to ask Haley a question.
“I was just curious: What would you say was the main cause of the Civil War? And do you think it starts with an ‘S’ and ends with a ‘lavery?’” Edebiri asked.
“Yep, I probably should have said that the first time,” Haley replied, before closing out the bit with the traditional “and live from New York, it’s Saturday night.”
Haley has spent weeks cleaning up the campaign trail gaffe that dates back to a late December town hall in northern New Hampshire in which the former South Carolina governor
did not identify slavery as a cause of the Civil War. She has repeatedly apologized for the omission,
saying “of course the Civil War was about slavery.”
But Haley and her campaign didn’t shy away from the controversy on Saturday. The former U.N. ambassador took the sharp joke in stride, smiling through her response. Afterward, her campaign
uploaded the full seven-minute clip — which also mocked Trump endorser and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott — to its YouTube channel and circulated it in an email to reporters titled, “Live From New York … It’s Nikki Haley vs. Donald Trump.”
Haley’s portion of the skit began with her asking the fake Trump why he wouldn’t debate her. Johnson replied by referring to Haley as Nancy Pelosi — a nod to the rally in which Trump
appeared to confuse Haley with the former House speaker.
“Are you doing OK, Donald? You might need a mental competency test,” quipped Haley, who has called to test the mental acuity of politicians over the age of 75.
The cold open went on to mine Trump’s legal troubles — including the $83.3 million verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case — for laughs. Haley, referencing the
combined $50 million Trump’s political committees spent on legal expenses in 2023, joked: “Do you need to borrow some money?”
And, after a reference to the iconic line from “The Sixth Sense” — “I see dead people” — Haley, who has argued that Trump and President Joe Biden are too old to be in the White House, said: “Yeah, that’s what voters will say if they see you and Joe on the ballot.”
Presidential candidates are known to pop up on the popular sketch comedy show. Trump even hosted the show in 2015, sparking intense controversy and a
protest outside Rockefeller Center.