Texas Senator Ted Cruz said he was “jealous” of the Saturday Night Live sketch mocking Alabama Senator Katie Britt’s rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
Britt is the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate at 40 and the first-ever female senator from Alabama, leading many to deem her a rising star in the party. However, following Biden’s State of the Union address last week, her rebuttal had a less than favorable reception. While some in the GOP praised her address for its attacks against the president and his border policies, others were critical, mocking her for her cadence and tone. Some critics deemed Britt’s video response “creepy” and amateurish.
On Saturday, SNL took Britt’s rebuttal further when actress Scarlett Johansson made a surprise cameo during the episode’s cold open for a parody of the senator’s remarks. Johansson as Britt told viewers from the get-go that she would be “auditioning for the part of scary mom” and “performing an original monologue called ‘This Country Is Hell.'”
However, Cruz took to his podcast “Verdict” on Wednesday to discuss the SNL sketch with his guest Britt. He said he was “jealous” of Britt’s sketch as Johansson ended up portraying her, adding that SNL doesn’t have Tom Cruise portray him.
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Newsweek has reached out to Cruz’s office and Britt’s office via email for comment.
“The thing that is the coolest is that you’re played by Scarlett Johansson. OK, Katie, look. To be candid, Scarlett Johansson is hot. And I am genuinely jealous because SNL has come after me a bunch of times, they don’t ever have Tom Cruise play me. How come you get a gorgeous movie star?” Cruz said.
In response to the SNL sketch and Johansson’s portrayal, Britt said: “How awesome is that…I was actually pretty pumped about that, I obviously know we are going to be the cold open. I thought how is this going to work and you wonder who in the world is going to play you. I’ll be honest with you, a bingo card of 2024 for Katie Britt, I did not have this on it and I certainly did not have Scarlett Johansson playing me…it could be worse…I’m here for it.”
Cruz said in the podcast episode that Republican portrayals in SNL haven’t always been the best.
“At least you were played by a woman, I’ve also been played by a woman. They cast Aidy Bryant as me and she is funny,” Cruz said.
SNL is not the only program to mock Britt. Jon Stewart poked fun at the senator over her “objectively terrible” rebuttal during Monday night’s episode of The Daily Show with the host sharing a clip of her scathing 17-minute video response.
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