Liberal mag polls comics on Larry David calling Trump 'racist'

By Sean Higgins, Sean Higgins

Published December 20, 2015

The mere fact that "Saturday Night Live" had billionaire and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as host on Saturday has some liberals seething in anger, almost a week after the program aired.

In a new article posted Thursday on the Nation's website, the venerable liberal magazine did an unscientific poll of comedians on whether TV comic Larry David deserved a $5,000 reward given out by a liberal group for calling Trump "racist" during the show. Most said no because the incident, which was clearly staged, allowed Trump to laugh off the accusation.

Prior to the show, a group called DeportRacism.com PAC offered $5,000 to anyone who would call Trump a racist during the show, presumably hoping someone in the studio audience would create an unexpected disruption during the live program. Instead, David, star of the cable show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and an occasional contributor to SNL, shouted it out during Trump's opening monologue. David then shrugged and explained that he was trying to win the award.

"As a businessman, I can fully respect that," Trump replied.

Nation contributor Katie Halper said the way the bit played out pained her.