Hillary Clinton has recently been at the center of a controversy over accusations that she used her personal email account for official communications during her term as Secretary of State, as reported by the Inquisitr . And while Clinton hasn’t been very vocal as to whether or not she actually broke the law, SNL has been quick to address the issue in a parody of Clinton discussing the emails – and her maybe/maybe not presidential campaign.
While Clinton has asked the state department to release the emails , claiming she did nothing wrong and has nothing to hide, the New York Times reported that her use of a personal account may have violated federal laws requiring official government correspondence to be kept on record.
The SNL sketch features Kate McKinnon portraying Clinton attempting, not very successfully, to discuss the emails in a folksy way. She begins by pointing out that she is speaking to America not as a government official, but “as a relatable woman on a couch.” She then goes on to say that critics who claim she may have been hiding something in her emails are wrong.
“Those emails are clean as a whistle. This is NOT how Hillary Clinton goes down,” she says, laughing. “I mean what did you think my email says? ‘Hi, its Hillary. I really screwed up on Benghazi today.’ Please!”
“There will be mistakes in my rise to the top,” she continues. “If I decide to run – who knows?”
McKinnon goes on to reveal “copies” of Clinton’s emails, such as a “romantic” message to Bill Clinton that congratulates him on his marital success or one to a friend discussing going to a movie. She even encourages people to look at her private Netflix account, admitting that she watches House of Cards — which she uses “like a Rocky training video” — or her Instagram account, where she has posted pictures of herself in “fun” activities — all of them portraying her in sunglasses and checking her smart phone.
The parody concludes by poking fun at Clinton’s claims that she isn’t sure about running for president. First she reveals that she has wanted to be president since before she was born, and as proof, shows a “sonogram” picture of herself holding a “Hillary 2008” sign in the womb. She ends by saying she will claim her rightful place in history — then backing off and saying again, “If I chose to run. I don’t know, I don’t know.”
The parody is all in fun, but Vox questions whether McKinnon’s portrayal of Clinton as “aloof, awkward, and power obsessed” might have the same effect on her public image as Tina Fey’s spoofs of Sarah Palin as a ditsy, good-old girl did on the former Alaska governor’s image in 2008.
What do you think? Could something like this damage Hillary Clinton’s credibility?
[Image via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
