Newly-ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi was given a brutally mocking cold open sendoff in the latest episode of NBCs long-running sketch show, underscoring once again how late-night television has become a reliable platform for progressive ridicule of conservative officials.
According to Mediaite, Bondi played by Ashley Padilla appeared only in the final 90 seconds of a six-minute sketch skewering the CBS/TNT March Madness studio crew, with the harshest lines reserved for the Republican attorney general. Kenan Thompson, portraying Charles Barkley, seized on Bondis exit with a sneering dismissal, declaring, As Attorney General, Pam Bondi was I dont say this often turrible, and adding, It is a shame when somebody gets fired. But we should all be glad that freckle-chested dragon lady is gone.
Bondis character then stormed onto the set to rebut the attack, insisting that the narrative being pushed about her record was dishonest and politically motivated. Im sorry, Charles, but I cant let the lies you said about me go unanswered, Padillas Bondi said, before asserting, The truth is, I was amazing at my job. I am proud to say I made history as the first woman ever to be fired as Attorney General. I shattered that glass exit door!
The sketch quickly pivoted from satire to outright humiliation, showing Bondi weeping over her dismissal and the reported celebration inside the Department of Justice. They threw my headshot in the trash like it was the Epstein files! Bondi said, a line that played for laughs while trivializing serious concerns about accountability in that scandal.
Bondi was not the only conservative official in President Donald Trumps orbit to be targeted, as the show also took aim at former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem through a personal jab at her husband, Bryan Noem. [Her] husband looks like hes starring in ! Thompsons Barkley cracked, a punchline that leaned on mockery of appearance rather than policy, reflecting a broader entertainment culture more interested in ridiculing Republicans than debating their ideas.
Login