The '30 Rock' actor defends playing Donald Trump on the sketch show 'Saturday Night Live' over the weekend following the President's Covid-19 diagnosis.

• Oct 6, 2020

AceShowbiz - Alec Baldwin has defended playing Donald Trump on the premiere of the new season of "Saturday Night Live" over the weekend (03-04Oct20) while the U.S. president battles coronavirus in hospital.

The 62-year-old portrayed the current POTUS on the show on Saturday, with his "Cold Open" sketch mocking the first presidential debate between Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

However, while Baldwin's skits as Trump have been well-received in the past, Saturday's episode was met with backlash from some viewers - due to the fact that the president is currently being cared for in hospital while battling Covid-19.

The star addressed the backlash in a lengthy video on his Instagram page on Sunday, in which he said, "If there was ever the suggestion that Trump was truly, gravely ill, and people said, 'Trump is really in trouble,' then I would bet you everything I have that we wouldn't even get near that, in terms of content of the show. They would have done something else. I've seen that happen before."

"We only have the words of the White House itself and the people who work there themselves to go on, and all of them have all been saying he isn’t in any danger. We only have their word to go by. And if their word was that he was in serious trouble, then we probably wouldn't have done it."

Insisting the chaotic debate formed the major part of the sketch and there were only a few references to the president's illness, Baldwin continued, "We thought the debate was something topical and we didn't have anything with him in a hospital bed, but we had the debate. You'd have to have a very good reason to avoid that, topicality-wise, and nobody thought that they were mocking somebody's illness by doing that."

Alec concluded by saying that while he's no fan of the president, he'd never wish him harm.