SNL is back and it has a new Joe Biden

published 3 October 2021

Saturday Night Live is back for its 47th season, and the long-running sketch comedy show has cast a new President Biden.

New cast member James Austin Johnson has taken on the role of the 46th president, replacing Alex Moffat (who remains on the show), which is no small task — Deadline writes that Johnson's debut as Biden during the premier episode's cold open "was probably the highest profile introduction of a new cast member ever."

The skit involved Johnson's Biden trying to get moderate Democrats like Aidy Bryant's Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Cecily Strong's Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to find some common ground with their progressive counterparts, Ego Nwodim's Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Melissa Villaseñor's Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). He didn't get very far, however, even — or especially — after former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (portrayed by Pete Davidson) and Moffat's Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) showed up to lend a hand. Watch the full sketch below.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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