Saudi Arabian television released a short video this week mocking Democrat President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as relations between the two nations continue to decline due to the Biden administration’s policies.
“The overarching theme of the clip is that President Biden is old,” The Jerusalem Post reported. “The character is obviously unaware of his surroundings and prone to falling asleep mid-sentence. Consequently, the audience sees Harris, played by a male actor in drag, telling the President what to say and do.”
The video starts out with the man playing Biden waving to reporters before turning and walking off stage. The person playing Harris then runs and grabs him and directs him back to the podium.
“Thank you very much,” the man playing Biden said. “Today, we’re going to talk about the crisis in Spain.” The person playing Harris then interjects and whispers in his ear. “Yeah, we’re going to talk about the crisis in Africa,” the man playing Biden said, before being corrected again and saying, “Yeah, Russia. Yeah, Russia.”
The man playing Biden had to be reminded of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name before he moved on to deliver an “important message,” at which point he falls asleep on stage and starts snoring.
“And the president of China,” the man says after being woken up.
He later falls asleep and the person playing Harris puppets his unconscious body, screaming, “clap for the president!”
For the first time i see the Saudi TV mocking the US administration. pic.twitter.com/8vPtU0txJ8
— Asaad Sam Hanna (@AsaadHannaa) April 12, 2022
Notable responses to the clip included:
- Max Abrahms, professor: “Throughout the Trump presidency we were told that foreign governments were laughing at him.”
- Tara Servatius, radio host: “This is how the world, and Saudi Arabia, now sees America.”
- Gerry Callahan, radio host: “The Saudis doing the job @SNL refuses to do.”
- Jon Najarian, commentator: “Not just funny, but funnier than anything @nbcsnl has done this season.”
“The sketch arrived amid tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia,” Newsweek reported. “There have been reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rejected a request to speak to Biden on the phone as the president tried to convince the Kingdom to pump more oil to ease the pressure of the Russian oil ban following the invasion of Ukraine.”
The Biden administration also delisted Houthi extremists, a group that Saudi Arabia is fighting a war against, from the official Foreign Terrorist Organization list and has been accused of showing weakness toward dealing with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main enemy in the region, during negotiations centered around trying to get Iran back into a nuclear deal to curb their ability to pursue obtaining nuclear weapons.