James Austin Johnson Debuts as President Joe Biden to Deliver a Message in ‘SNL’ Cold Open

As expected, Saturday Night Live season 47 kicked off on a political note.

New SNL cast member James Austin Johnson starts off the cold open as President Joe Biden, delivering a message to the American people. Johnson is the latest comedian to impersonate Biden after Jim Carrey, Jason Sudeikis, and Woody Harrelson.

Johnson’s Biden starts off talking about how his summer went. “How’s everybody’s summer? Mine was bad. Not Cuomo bad, but definitely not Afghanistan good.”

Biden brought Democrats together to talk about the social spending plan and the Senate-passed infrastructure bill. In attempt to compromise on certain issues on the agenda, Biden gathered Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Cecily Strong), Sen. Joe Manchin (Aidy Bryant), Rep. Ilhan Omar (Ego Nwodim), and AOC (Melissa Villaseñor). AOC commented on her “tax the rich” dress at this year’s Met Gala, saying, “I wore a dress that said tax the rich. Then spent all night partying with the rich. Oops.”

Pete Davidson returns as Andew Cuomo and Chuck Shumer, played by Alex Moffat, tries to plug his new book on Sandwiches I Have Liked and Tried. You can watch a clip above.

It was a much more traditional opening than the featured in the season 46 finale, which saw the cast reflecting on their experiences throughout the pandemic. SNL alumnus Chris Rock also made a cameo in the cold open, highlighting just how much America went through from the time he hosted the season premiere in October 2020. 

“I hosted the first episode this season, and that feels like six years ago,” Rock said. “Here’s how messed up the world was when I hosted: I wanted Kanye West to be the musical guest and they couldn’t do it because he was running for president. Also the week I was here, the sitting president, who said ‘COVID would disappear,’ got COVID. That was this season.”

The season 47 premiere featured musical guest Kacey Musgaves and first-time host Owen Wilson.