Alec Baldwin Addresses Rob Schneider 'SNL' Criticism, Calls Trump 'Maniac'

Alec Baldwin has addressed Rob Schneider's criticism of Saturday Night Live in an Instagram video in which he also called former President Donald Trump a "maniac."

Schneider—who worked on SNL between 1988 and 1994, going from writer to cast member in 1990—hit out at the long-running NBC comedy show during a recent appearance on The Glenn Beck Podcast.

The conservative comedian, 58, said that a November 2016 sketch featuring Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton after Clinton's election loss to Trump was a moment he decided the show was "over."

"I hate to crap on my own show," Schneider told conservative commentator Beck. "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. I literally prayed, 'Please have a joke at the end. Don't do this. Please don't go down there'," Schneider continued. "And there was no joke at the end, and I went, 'It's over. It's over. It's not gonna come back.'"

Baldwin, who holds the record of hosting SNL the most times with 17 stints, responded to Schneider's complaints about the show in a video posted on Instagram on Wednesday.

"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," Baldwin started his lengthy video, before giving a timeline of when he started doing Trump impersonations from the same year Trump was "unbelievably" elected.

Taking aim at Schneider's criticism of SNL, Baldwin noted that the comic had criticized "someone's judgment and you leave out the idea that you had no problem with their judgment when they hired you... And of course, Rob Schneider had a great run and he's funny. I think he's funny. Rob's very, very funny."

Discussing conservatives in the entertainment industry, Baldwin, who won an Emmy Award for his impersonation of Trump on SNL, said he believes they "have their own little club" and feel that "they're treated unfairly by Hollywood."

"I hear that these conservatives say that there's a bias against them and I think that's unfortunate," he said. "There's people that I know, and I won't name them, who are conservatives, who are arch-conservatives. I enjoyed them as actors a lot."

Baldwin then branded Trump a "virus," stating that he had taken "control" of the Republican party—making matters "tough" for conservatives.

"So Schneider brings this up now and he's criticizing [SNL]," Baldwin said. "I guess it must be tough. I know that in the Trump era it's tough for conservatives... I think it's agony because you've got this guy who's got control of the party. He's like a virus that's taken over your party. And you're all raising money on his reputation and his energy field. But my point is that I know it's tough."

After saying that he was "very proud" of Liz Cheney for not wanting to "get into the whole Trump madness," Baldwin said people in the arts can have a way of looking at the world that is "different. It seeks to find what we have in common."

Adding that characters are often portrayed in a way where the actor has to believe the individual onscreen is "right," Baldwin said: "That must be tough for people to view politics through that filter where Trump is the subject.

"I've said countless times publicly: Trump is the only president in our country's history who has served as president and was unchanged by the process. He was exactly the same when he came out as when he started. He's still the same, he's even worse, I guess," Baldwin said. "It must be tough for the Rob Schneiders of the world. It must be tough that your man is a maniac... There's a lot of criticisms that are hurled back and forth between the two [political] sides about the same bunch of issues."

"But Trump stands alone," Baldwin continued. "Trump is alone. Trump is an anomaly. Trump is a maniac who convinced people that he should become the president of the United States—and he succeeded. And continues two years later, saying we should change the result of the election and blah, blah, blah."

Further defending SNL from Schneider's criticism, Baldwin accepted that not all of the show's episodes are good, as is the case with many bodies of work.

"SNL is a live TV show... They're in an office at a meeting on a Monday and the show is live by Saturday. It's not easy. Of course, I'm going to defend them. They're my friends, they're old, old pals of mine," Baldwin said.

"I divide the episodes of SNL the way I divide everything else. You look at an actor's career, you look at a director's career. I divide it into thirds. A third of it is good, a third of it is so-so and a third of it is not very good. And a third of the episodes of SNL have been good, and a third of them so-so and a third not so good. Everybody's batting through 33 [percent]," Baldwin continued.

"It's no different than any other program. It is topical, they discuss what's going on. It's what's expected of us and it's worked. In a couple more years, they're going to be doing their 50th season, so they must be doing something right. Of course, I love Lorne [Michaels]. I love the institution that is SNL, I've had a lot of fun with them.

"But you've got to be careful. Someone taught me this in this business, that is 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."