NEW YORK (AP) – Vice President Kamala Harris made an unannounced trip to New York to appear on ” Saturday Night Live,” he briefly stepped away from the battleground states where he campaigned with just three days to go before the election.

Harris departed on Air Force Two after a campaign stop Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was scheduled to head to Detroit, but once the aircraft was airborne, aides said it was actually going to New York.

Her appearance on the show was confirmed by three people familiar with Harris’ plans who were not authorized to speak about them publicly. It’s the last SNL episode before Election Day on Tuesday.

Actor Maya Rudolph first played Harris on the show in 2019 and reprized the role this season, doing a spot-on impression of the vice president, including calling her “Momala.”

Rudolph opened the show’s season premiere with the line, “Well, well, well. Look who fell from the coconut tree.” And he joked that he kept President Joe Biden in his place.

Harris’ husband, Mr. Doug Emhoff, was played by former cast member Andy Samberg, and Biden is played by Dana Carvey, who also played then-President George HW Bush in the early 1990s.

Rudolph’s performance won critical and comedic acclaim, including from Harris herself.

“Maya Rudolph — I mean, she’s so good,” Harris said on ABC’s “The View” last month. “She had everything, the suit, the jewelry, everything!”

Harris added that she was impressed by Rudolph’s “manners.”

Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller expressed surprise that Harris would appear on Saturday Night Live, given what he characterized as her unflattering portrayal on the show.

Asked if Trump had been invited to appear, he said: “I don’t know. Probably not.”

Politicians have a long history on SNL, including Harris’ Republican opponent, the former president Donald Trumpwho hosted the show in 2015.

Hillary Clinton has been running for president in the 2008 Democratic primary when she appeared alongside Amy Poehler, who played her on the show and provided her trademark over-the-top giggle. The real Clinton asked herself during her appearance, “Am I really laughing like that?”

Clinton returned in 2016 while running against Trump in a race she ultimately lost.

The first sitting president to appear on Saturday Night Live was Republican Gerald Ford, who did so less than a year after the show’s debut. Ford appeared on April 17, 1976 and delivered the show’s famous opening, “Live from New York.”

Barack Obama was still only a Democratic presidential candidate when he emerged in February 2008, and Republican Bob Dole emerged in 1996 — just 11 days after losing that year’s election to Democrat Bill Clinton. Dole comforted Norm Macdonald, who played the Kansas senator on the show.

Then there was Tina Fey’s 2008 impression of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin — and in particular her quip that “I can see Russia from my house.” It was so good that Fey won an Emmy. Palin herself appeared on the show that season in the weeks leading up to the election.

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Long, Miller and Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.