Watching the real Nikki Haley spar with a fake Donald Trump was awkward—and not very funny. Will Heath / NBC February 4, 2024, 1:50 PM ET Last night, audiences who tuned into Saturday Night Live to see The Bear star and Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri host for the first time were greeted with an awkward surprise: The sight of the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, trying her best to seem at ease opposite a fake Donald Trump. Haley popped up in the cold open, playing herself as a “concerned South Carolina voter” attending a CNN town hall with James Austin Johnson’s Trump. “Why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?” she asked. In response, Johnson started rambling about Nancy Pelosi—mistaking the former South Carolina governor for the Democratic congresswoman—which Haley followed up by asking “Donald” to take a mental-competency test. While Johnson went on an absurdist Trumpian rant about how he was deemed “mental,” Haley tried to make herself seem like a reasonable alternative, maintaining a stiff posture and a persistent smile. It was framed as a …