A U.S. Senator Had To Insist That He Didn’t Call Bernie Sanders An ‘Ignorant Slut’ After An ‘SNL’ Reference That Fell Flat

Saturday Night Live is always ready to comment on political issues in America, but it’s not every day a more obscure reference from the show’s history is used in present political dealings. That’s the only way it’s possible, however, for a sitting U.S. Senator to indirectly call Bernie Sanders an “ignorant slut.”

John Kennedy, a Republican senator from Louisiana, was speaking on Wednesday to Neera Tanden during a conformation hearing for the White House Office of Management and Budget where the line was used to characterize her past comments on social media. Tanden was a bit of a controversial pick because of her past tweets about a variety of political figures, both Republicans like Donald Trump but also more progressive politicians like Bernie Sanders.

As The Hill noted, Tanden has compared Ted Cruz to a vampire and Mitch McConnell to Voldemort from Harry Potter. But Kennedy focused in particular about the many tweets she’s fired at Sanders, and used an SNL reference to do so.

“I’m very disturbed about your personal comments about people,” he said. “I mean, you called Sen. Sanders everything but an ignorant slut.”

The video is a bit awkward, which is likely because the reference to the Point/Counterpoint sketches from Saturday Night Live, where Dan Akroyd would say extremely insulting things to Jane Curtin.

The clip quickly went viral, with a lot of people reacting to both the botched SNL line and the Sanders reaction.

Kennedy did apologize, sort of. Or at least tried to make it clear he was not calling Sanders any names.

“I want the record to reflect that I did not call Sen. Sanders an ignorant slut,” Kennedy said. Sanders replied that he didn’t know what to say in response.

“I don’t know how I should take that, Sen. Kennedy,” he responded.

(Via The Hill)