‘Saturday Night Live’ tackles Hillary Clinton’s email scandal

“Saturday Night Live” tackled Hillary Clinton’s email scandal in its cold open on Saturday and in the process allowed cast member Kate McKinnon a chance to trot out a dead-on Clinton character that will doubtless be making many return appearances this campaign season. That is, if she decides to run.

McKinnon’s take on the former secretary of state is a mix of Frank Underwood and Tom Cruise, with unquenchable ambition behind a forced mask of friendly humanity.

As she admits in the sketch, she watches “House of Cards” from beginning to end regularly on the treadmill, watching it like Rocky in training.

As for the emails on her personal account, the center of the current real world political scandal? Nothing to see here, McKinnon as Clinton says. Don’t expect to find any shocking Benghazi revelations, she tells critics.

“This is not how Hillary Clinton goes down,” she said. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I was born 67 years ago and I have been planning on being president ever since. There will be no mistakes in my rise to the top... if I decide to run.”

The sketch expertly lampooned Clinton’s extended will-she-or-won’t-she dance with the media as well as her recent troubles for using personal email to conduct federal business.

McKinnon’s Clinton is definitely more unhinged than Amy Poehler’s take on her during the 2008 campaign. And could also be a real thorn in Hillary’s side.

But could “Saturday Night Live” really wield that much influence? As Chevy Chase himself noted in the documentary “Politics: A Pop Culture History,” his impression of President Gerald Ford did the president no favors.

“He even mentioned in his own autobiography it had an effect over a period of time that affected the election to some degree,” Chase said of Ford.

The full sketch can be seen here.

Twitter: @patrickkevinday