Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Homeland Security have responded after Amy Poehler skewered them on Saturday Night Live.
Poehler returned to host the long-running NBC show Saturday, opening with a sketch spoofing Bondi’s Senate hearing starring Tina Fey as Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem.
On X, Attorney General Bondi shared a screenshot of Poehler and Fey in character with the caption: “Sec_Noem, should we recreate this picture in Chicago? Loving Amy Poehler!”
Meanwhile, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin commented on the sketch in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “SNL is absolutely right — the Democrats’ shutdown does need to end!” she said.
The premise of the Cold Open was that Poehler’s Bondi — having not actually answered any questions during her Senate hearing — has been called back in to once again face questioning.
“Furious to be here,” Poehler’s Bondi says to kick off her testimony. When asked if she will tell the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” she glibly responds: “No.”
Senators then fire questions at Poehler as she snarks at each. When asked to spell her name, she says Bondi is spelled with an “i” because “I ain’t gonna answer any of your questions.”
After another inquiry, Poehler responds, “Before I don’t answer, I’d like to insult you personally.”
She then dodges another with the line, “I’m not gonna dignify that question with a lie.”
At one point, Poehler’s Bondi is asked if President Donald Trump directed her to indict former FBI Director James Comey.
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“I’m not going to discuss my private conversations with the president,” Poehler as Bondi said. “I’m not telling you who fell asleep in the middle of a sentence, or who kept calling me Ivanka while patting his lap.”
The sketch parodies Bondi’s recent tense Senate testimony, during which she often lashed out at senators who asked her questions.
Later in the SNL opener, Poehler’s Bondi is asked why ICE agents are being sent to American cities. The question serves as a segue to introduce a special appearance by SNL legend Fey playing Noem.
Fey and Poehler are good friends, longtime collaborators and SNL stalwarts. The crowd erupted in applause at the sight of the two together again on the show.
Fey’s Noem walked into the sketch with an assault rifle, a baseball cap, and blinding lip gloss, living up to her recently-acquired “Ice Barbie” moniker.
“That’s right, it’s me, Kristi,” Fey’s Noem says. “I spelled my name with an ‘i’ because that’s how I thought it was spelled.”
Arguably the biggest laugh of the opening sketch is when a senator stand-in insists to Fey’s Noem that Democrats want to end the government shutdown more than Republicans do, to which she replied “ha — that makes me laugh more than the ending to Old Yeller.”
The gag was a reference to Noem’s infamous memoir confession that she shot her puppy, Cricket, dead after it tried to bite her.
