Carr, a Republican, was nominated to the commission in 2017 by then-president Donald Trump and renominated last year by President Biden. The FCC is a bipartisan commission by law, and no more than three of its five members can belong to the same party.
“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,” Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
A member of the Federal Communications Commission has alleged that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ appearance on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend was a “clear and blatant” evasion of the agency’s equal time rule.
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The commission’s equal time rule requires broadcast television and radio stations to provide comparable time and placement to opposing candidates for federal office. It includes exemptions for news programs and coverage of news events, and does not require broadcasters to host candidates on the exact same programs.
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“SNL” Executive Producer Lorne Michaels previously told the Hollywood Reporter he had no plans to have Harris or Trump on the program before the election.
“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” he told the outlet. “You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”
NBC and FCC officials did not respond Sunday to requests for comment from the Globe.
In a required notice to the FCC, which was first reported by a journalist for The Hollywood Reporter, NBC stated that Harris “appeared without charge on NBC’s Saturday Night Live (”SNL”) for a total period of 1 minute and 30 seconds.” That means other candidates now have the opportunity to request time on the network, though the seconds are ticking by.
Harris appeared during Saturday’s cold open, in a sketch that recalled a scene between Trump and former “SNL” performer Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” in 2015. The vice president was seated opposite Maya Rudolph, who was in character as Harris, with the two looking at each other in a glassless mirror as Rudolph’s Harris prepared to deliver a speech in Pennsylvania.
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“I just, I wish I could talk to someone who’s been in my shoes — you know, a Black, South Asian woman running for president, preferably from the Bay Area,” Rudolph said into the mirror moments before Harris appeared, drawing jubilant applause from the studio audience.
“You and me both, sister,” Harris said to Rudolph. “It’s nice to see you, Kamala, and I’m just here to remind you, you got this, because you can do something your opponent cannot do. You can open doors.”
The joke was a reference to Trump’s appearance in Wisconsin last week when he initially struggled to open the door to a garbage truck he boarded at an airport, which was meant to draw attention to a remark from President Biden that suggested Trump’s supporters were garbage.
Rudolph then broke out in her impression of the vice president’s distinctively enthusiastic laughter.
“I don’t really laugh like that, do I?” Harris asked, harkening to a similar exchange Hillary Clinton had opposite Amy Poehler’s portrayal of her in 2008.
“A little bit,” Rudolph responded.
Rudolph then reached her hand through the “mirror” to Harris.
“Now Kamala, take my palmala,” she said. “The American people want to the stop the chaos and end the dramala with a cool new step-momala, kick back in our pajamalas, and watch a rom-comala.”
“Like ‘Legally Blonde’-ala,” Harris responded.
In sync, the two said supporters need to “Keep Kamala and carry-on-ala” and declared that they share each other’s “belief in the promise of America.”
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They then delivered the signature intro, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
Politicians have a long history of appearing on “SNL,” including Trump, who hosted the show in 2015, the year before he was elected president. But making an appearance so close to Election Day, as Harris did Saturday, is unusual, and comes as she and Trump are vying for voters in seven battleground states that will likely decide the election.
The news that Harris would appear on the long-running sketch comedy show spilled out hours before the show hit the air at 11:30 p.m.
Harris had departed from an evening campaign stop in Charlotte, N.C., on Air Force Two and was scheduled to head to Detroit, but once in the air, aides said she’d making an detour and the plane touched down at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, N.Y., according to news reports. Harris arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan shortly after 8 p.m.
Shannon Larson of the Globe staff contributed to this report, and material from the Associated Press was used.
Dan Glaun can be reached at dan.glaun@globe.com. Follow him @dglaun. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.