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Bernie Sanders headed to New York for expected ‘Saturday Night Live’ cameo

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February 5, 2016 at 12:12 p.m. EST
Sanders speaks at a campaign stop at the Rochester Opera House in Rochester, N.H., on Thursday. (John Minchillo/AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is planning a trip Saturday to New York, where he is likely to make an appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” according to a source with direct knowledge of plans.

The show is being hosted this week by comedian Larry David, who has played the Vermont senator with uncanny precision in multiple skits this season — even winning praise from Sanders. As of Friday morning, it was unclear what Sanders’s role on the  long-running late-night comedy show would be.

The person familiar with his plans spoke on the condition of anonymity because neither "Saturday Night Live" nor the campaign was prepared to announce Sanders’s appearance.

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Sanders’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, appeared on the show in October, in a sketch in which she played a bartender who commiserated with Clinton as played by the show’s cast member Kate McKinnon.

Republican candidate Donald Trump has also appeared on SNL.

Both Sanders and Clinton are spending the majority of their days in New Hampshire in advance of Tuesday’s Democratic primary, in which polls show Sanders with a sizable lead. Sanders is expected to return to the state by Sunday to resume campaigning.