SNL star Cecily Strong ‘backed out’ of sketch on House hearing on antisemitism: Report

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Cecily Strong became “uncomfortable” at the last minute with the cold open skit on the House congressional hearings on antisemitism on college campuses, according to a new report.

Strong was to play Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) on Saturday’s show, but a source said that during dress rehearsal, she backed out.

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New cast member Chloe Troast took over for Strong in playing Stefanik.

The sketch was a parody of last week’s congressional hearing in which Stefanik grilled the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Despite the controversy of the hearing being about the heads of the Ivy League universities providing unsatisfactory answers on tackling antisemitic speech on campus, the NBC variety show chose to make the primary target of the sketch to be about the New York congresswoman who led the questioning last week.

“I am here today because hate speech has no place on college campuses,” Troast’s Stefanik said in the sketch Saturday night. “Hate speech belongs in Congress, on Elon Musk’s Twitter, in private dinners with my donors, and in public speeches by my work husband, Donald Trump.”

The skit received blowback from social media and numerous news outlets.

Barstool Sports called the skit “one of the worst cold openings in the show’s history.”

Meghan McCain called the skit “vile.”

“There is a 400% increase in antisemitic hate crimes since October 7th and SNL thinks it’s hilarious….This is vile. Vile,” McCain posted.

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“@EliseStefanik handled the pro g*noc*de University Presidents beautifully. So of course SNL mocks her. This is so difficult to watch. Isn’t SNL supposed to be funny?” Libs of TikTok said in a social media post.

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said, “The fact that SNL chose to make fun of Stefanik instead of condemning antisemitism says a lot.”