Associated Press
By Frazier Moore
November 4, 2015
Pressure
continued to mount on NBC to cancel Donald Trump's guest-host
appearance on this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" as a coalition of
advocacy groups delivered petitions
to the network Wednesday calling for him to be dropped from the show.
The
petitions delivered to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, home of NBC and "Saturday
Night Live," marked the latest attempts to dissuade the network from
allowing the Republican
presidential hopeful to host the show, with the National Hispanic
Leadership Agenda earlier asking that NBC reconsider the decision.
"There's
mounting evidence that Donald Trump's racist demagoguery is resulting
in real-world violence and physical and verbal intimidation," Mushed
Zaheed, deputy political
director of Credo Action, one of the participating groups, said in a
statement.
In
advance of the show, NBC released promotional spots featuring Trump
that included one in which he refers to a Republican opponent, Ben
Carson, as "a complete and total
loser."
Trump
drew fire early in his campaign when, as the billionaire developer
announced his candidacy, he described some Mexicans who are in the
United States illegally as
criminals and rapists, prompting NBC to sever its Miss Universe ties
with Trump while declaring he would never again appear on "The Celebrity
Apprentice."
"It
is shameful for 'SNL' and NBC to think that racism can be repackaged as
comedy," said Juan Escalante, digital campaigns manager for America's
Voice, another group
participating in the coalition.
Other
participating groups included the National Hispanic Media Coalition,
MoveOn.org and National Council of La Raza. About two-dozen protesters
were on hand as the petitions
were delivered to NBC's midtown Manhattan offices. Some chanted "dump
Trump" and carried signs bearing the same phrase.
The
coalition is accusing NBC of reversing itself for the sake of a ratings
windfall while granting Trump "a free national platform to bolster his
racist and xenophobic
campaign," Zaheed said.
Alex
Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, said after
delivering the petitions that the protest effort was not over. His
group and others would
use the days leading up to the broadcast to call on "SNL" sponsors to
remove their commercials from Saturday's show, he said.
NBC declined comment on the petitions and did not immediately comment on the attempt to get ads pulled.
Meanwhile,
Trump drew sharp criticism in an online letter with the names of dozens
of prominent writers, filmmakers, academics and others from the United
States, Spain
and Latin America attached to it, including Oscar-winning
writer-director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Birdman: Or The Unexpected
Virtue of Ignorance").
"We
refuse to keep silent in the face of the alarming declarations of the
candidate for the presidency of the United States Donald Trump," the
letter posted Tuesday reads.
"His hate speech appeals to the lowest passions like xenophobia,
machismo, political intolerance and religious dogmatism."
The letter calls on the American people to "cease to tolerate his absurd positions."
Trump
has played a major role in delivering record-breaking ratings to the
first three Republican debates and has been a sought-after guest on talk
shows and newscasts.
Asked
about the opposition to his upcoming appearance while promoting his new
book in New York on Tuesday, Trump said he was pleased to hear
demonstrations were already
underway.
"Look,
I think they should demonstrate" he said. "Ratings will go even higher
than they are going to be. It's going to be one of their highest-rated
shows ever and they're
very excited about it."
Asked specifically about the petition, he said: "It's only going to make it hotter."
Trump
also repeated his frequent assertion that he has great relationship
with Hispanics, with tens of thousands working for him over the years,
he said.
Saturday's
appearance will be an "SNL" encore for Trump, who first hosted the show
in April 2004, long before his entry into politics, as the breakout
star of NBC's new
competition show "The Apprentice."
He appeared on CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday, where anchor Chris Cuomo voiced surprise that NBC booked him.
"I
thought you were at war with them," said Cuomo, "then all of a sudden
they wanted to have you on. You say it's because of ratings."
"You're never at war when you get great ratings with a network, OK?" Trump replied. "Nobody gets ratings like me."
He
went on to say that initially he was asked to do a single sketch on
Saturday's show. Then "SNL" executive producer Lorne Michaels had second
thoughts and asked Trump
if he would host the entire 90-minute program. "And I said, 'You know
what? I would.' Because it's an honor."
"Every
single major politician in this country probably for 30 years has done
'Saturday Night Live' if they're invited," Trump added. "If they're
invited."
NBC would not comment on whether any other presidential candidates are being considered to host "SNL."
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