"You’ve got to be careful": Alec Baldwin hits back at Rob Schneider’s SNL criticism

American actor Alec Baldwin has responded to comedian Rob Schneider's recent criticism of Saturday Night Live and Kate McKinnon’s impressions of Hillary Clinton.

On September 1, Baldwin, 64, who has hosted SNL 17 times, took to his Instagram handle and posted a lengthy video where he took a dig at Schneider.

“I guess it must be an incredibly slow news cycle if we’re talking about Rob Schneider’s thoughts about Kate McKinnon playing Hillary Clinton so many years ago.”

While Alec Baldwin, who supports the Democratic Party, stated that he finds Schneider "very, very funny" and praised his "great run" on the show, where he was a cast member for four years from 1990 to 1994, he also gave an observation about the conservative views shared by him.

“You've got to be careful when you criticize people for their judgment. And you turn around and pause for a moment and realize, well that judgment of theirs led them to hire you once upon a time.”

Baldwin impersonated former American president Donald Trump on the sketch-comedy show from 2016 to 2020. While speaking in the video, the Beetlejuice star dubbed Trump a "maniac."

“I hear that these conservatives say that there's a bias against them, and I think that's unfortunate. There's people that I know, and I won't name them, who are conservatives, who are arch-conservatives… Trump is the only president in our country's history who has served as president and was unchanged by the process. It must be tough for the Rob Schneiders of the world. It must be tough that your man is a maniac.”

Rob Schneider, 58, had also criticized Alec Baldwin's impression of the former President in 2018, stating that he did not find Alec's impression of Trump comical, adding, “(Baldwin) so clearly hates the man he’s playing.” The Edge actor responded to his criticism and said:

“I made [Trump] a cartoon. I wanted to take him to another level of madness.”

The actor further added that SNL “must be doing something right,” as the show will be returning with season 48 this fall.

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What did Rob Schneider say about SNL which prompted Alec Baldwin to respond

Rob Schneider recently appeared on The Glenn Beck Podcast and made headlines for making controversial comments, stating that Kate McKinnon's impression of Hillary Clinton in 2016's SNL episode ruined the show.

“I hate to crap on my old show.”

He further criticized Clinton, who lost the presidential election to Donald Trump, and dragged Kate McKinnon into the conversation.

“When Hillary Clinton lost—which is understandable why she lost. She's not exactly the most logical person in the room. Then when Kate McKinnon went out there on Saturday Night Live in the cold opening and all that, and she's dressed as Hillary Clinton, and she started playing 'Hallelujah.'”

He further added,

“I literally prayed, 'Please have a joke at the end. Don't do this. Please don't go down there.' And there was no joke at the end, and I went, 'It's over. It's over. It's not gonna come back.'”

As of writing, Rob Schneider has not responded to Alec Baldwin's lengthy video criticizing his comments.