Willie Geist Roasts Trump’s Leaked-Tape Denials With ‘Saturday Night Live’ Character

Willie Geist used a “Saturday Night Live” character to mock Donald Trump for his defense of leaked audio in the classified documents case. (Watch the video below.)

“Morning Joe” on Wednesday played a clip of a reporter asking Trump if there were any more concerning tapes, prompting the former president to say: “I don’t do things wrong. I do things right. I’m a legitimate person.”

That put a smile on Geist’s face. “There’s an element ... of Stuart Smalley there. Looking in the mirror saying I’m good enough, people like me, saying, ‘I am a legitimate person,’” the co-host said.

Smalley was the self-affirmation guru played by Al Franken in the 1990s on “Saturday Night Live” and in the “Stuart Saves His Family” movie. “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me,” Smalley would say in his signature mantra.

But Geist wasn’t just going for laughs. “Morning Joe” covered Trump’s evolving excuses for seemingly admitting on tape that he held a classified document on military plans.

At first, he blamed the government for leaking the tape, which he called an “exoneration.” He then claimed he was talking out of bravado and held no classified papers. After that, he said the documents were related to his properties and golf course plans even though he can be heard giving specifics to observers about their strategic content on the recording.

“It also speaks to the impunity with which he has operated with his supporters, especially for the last several years,” Geist said. “Which is I can just say that these were plans for a golf course or for one of my buildings despite what’s explicitly on the tape, and they’ll buy it.”

Trump faces 37 charges for mishandling the documents that he hoarded at Mar-a-Lago.

The recording, from July 2021 at his Bedminster, New Jersey, property, emerged as evidence in the indictment.

Hear it here: