NBC Gives Trump 2 Minutes Of Free Air Time After Harris’ Surprise SNL Appearance

NBC gave former President Donald Trump two minutes of free air time on Sunday night after his competitor, Vice President Kamala Harris, made a surprise appearance on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.
Here is the Trump video that ran during NASCAR and also during NBC’s Sunday Night Football postgame show as part of the equal time provision, given that Kamala Harris appeared on SNL. pic.twitter.com/7I1eRs1hr0
The commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, issued a public complaint on X this weekend after reports first emerged that Harris would drop in on the iconic show with just days to go until the presidential election. The skit saw the vice president give a pep talk to comedian Maya Rudolph — who has been playing her for weeks — and make some jokes about Trump’s recent campaign stop inside a garbage truck.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” Carr wrote on X. “The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election.”
NBC later filed an Equal Time Notice with the FCC on Sunday noting Harris appeared on SNL “without charge” for a total of a minute and 30 seconds. Doing so allows other campaigns to request equal access to its airwaves.
Trump’s minute-long video message was aired as NBC broadcast a NASCAR event on Sunday and was played again during the network’s “Sunday Night Football” coverage for a total of two minutes of airtime.
Update: NBC stations ARE providing Trump with equal time, per the FCC’s regulations, in the wake of the Harris cameo on “SNL” last night. A direct-to-camera appeal from Trump to “go and vote” aired during this evening’s NASCAR post-race show. pic.twitter.com/w3bVv9vP6u
“Hello to our great sports fans,” the former president said in the clip. “We’re two days away from the most important election in the history of our country we’ve got to save our country and it needs saving, it’s in very bad shape. … We’re going to end up in a depression based on what’s been happening. We’ve never seen anything like it at least in the last 40 years.”
He went on to squeeze the key points of his campaign rallies into a few seconds, pleading to “save our country” and “closer our borders” while blaming the state of the nation on Harris and her “friends.”