Saturday Night Live‘s Weekend Update took aim at the Trump administration’s explanation for grounding all flights for hours on Friday, and questioned what the president knew about ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
“The scariest part about all these flights getting grounded was the messaging from the normally dependable Trump administration,” Colin Jost began. “First, they said it was a ‘telecommunications outage, as of now.’ Why add ‘as of now?’ No one wants to hear: ‘Your child is safe, as of now.’”
“Then, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said the whole situation was the result of a contractor upgrading copper wire to fiberoptic cable. So, one guy switched out one wire and took out all planes? I think that’s literally a scene from the movie, ‘Airplane!’” Jost joked.
Co-anchor Michael Che turned to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin telling reporters in the early stage of the incident that it was not a 9/11-type situation.
“Which he knew, because Rudy Giuliani didn’t see his shadow,” he joked.
Jost then addressed ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affairs, some reportedly with his subordinates and one with a suspected Chinese spy. The news has caused stocks to fall, since the company’s A.I. chips are shouldering a large part of the U.S. economy.
“Jensen Huang had a midlife crisis so bad, you might lose your house in his divorce,” he joked.
Jost then addressed the uncertainty about what Donald Trump knew about Huang potentially being taken advantage of and when he knew it.
“Insiders are also saying that despite Trump’s claim that he didn’t know about the Nvidia CEO’s relationship with a Chinese spy, he was actually briefed about it on a trip to China in May,” Jost said. “So this concludes yet another game of ‘Dementia or Lying?’
“Turns out it’s a trick question,” he added. “Because it’s always both.”
Additional topics Weekend Update covered included the surprising Senate win in Mississippi by Democrat Scott Colom over incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
“Or, as it was reported in Mississippi: ‘Black Man Savagely Beats White Woman,’” Che joked.
