Donald Trump appoints Walter White from 'Breaking Bad' to head DEA in 'SNL' cold open
It does not seem entirely out of the question that, in Donald Trump's America, fictional meth maker Walter White would head the Drug Enforcement Agency. Over the weekend, Saturday Night Live turned its attention to the president-elect's somewhat puzzling cabinet appointments in a fictionalized segment of CNN's The Lead With Jake Tapper.
In the show's cold open, Beck Bennet, as Tapper, asks Kate McKinnon's Kellyanne Conway if Trump wasn't choosing people "specifically to undermine the very agencies they head." Then he breaks the news that Trump has just appointed the Breaking Bad anti-hero, played by Bryan Cranston, to lead the charge on enforcing the country's drug laws.
"Donald Trump and I agree: It's time to make America cook again," Cranston explains. "We wanna fill this nation with red, white and a whole lotta blue."
As White explains, he "know[s] the DEA better than anyone, inside and out" — as a result of being targeted by it. White notes that his hiring came at chief strategist Steve Bannon's recommendation and that the administration found him via the Breitbart comments section, where White had allegedly been lurking. Although White admits that he does not know Trump, he says he is a "big fan."
"I like his style," White says. "He acts first and asks questions later. I also like that wall he wants to build. Nothing comes in from Mexico, meaning a lot less competition for the rest of us." White was not referring to the job market.
McKinnon's Conway explains that White, despite his apparent lack of relevant experience — his day job being high school science teacher, after all — is eminently qualified for the job. Bennett's Tapper earlier questioned whether or not the people Trump had recently chosen to run his government were actually suited for their new jobs, citing Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as an example. Trump tapped Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, despite Pruitt's firm disbelief in climate change and commitment to curtailing what he has called "the EPA's activist agenda." The choice has not been the only one that "has people scratching their heads," as Bennett's Tapper explains. And most probably, it won't be the last.
