NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris took an unannounced trip to New York to attend “ Saturday Night Live“, and briefly moved away from the battleground states where she campaigned just three days before the election.

Harris flew on Air Force Two after a campaign stop Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was supposed to fly to Detroit, but once the plane was in the air, 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 publicly about them. It's the last SNL episode before Election Day on Tuesday.

Actress Maya Rudolph first portrayed Harris on the series in 2019 and has reprized her role this season, impersonating the vice president and calling herself “Momala,” among other things.

Rudolph opened the show’s season premiere by saying, “Good, good, good. Look who fell out of that coconut tree.” And she jokes about keeping President Joe Biden in check.

Harris' husband, second gentleman 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 has received critical and comedic acclaim – including from Harris himself.

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

Harris added that she was impressed by Rudolph's “mannerisms.”

Senior Trump adviser Jason Miller expressed surprise that Harris would appear on Saturday Night Live given what he said was an unflattering portrayal on the show.

Asked whether Trump had been invited to his appearance, 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 was running for president in the 2008 Democratic primary when she appeared alongside Amy Poehler, who played her on the show, and gave her trademark exaggerated giggles. The real Clinton asked herself during her appearance: “Am I really laughing like that?”

Clinton returned in 2016 when she ran against Trump in a race that 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 famously opened the show with “Live from New York.”

Barack Obama was still a Democratic presidential candidate when he appeared in February 2008, and Republican Bob Dole appeared in 1996 – just 11 days after he lost that year's election to Democrat Bill Clinton. Dole comforted Norm Macdonald, who played the Kansas senator on the series.

Then there was Tina Fey's 2008 impression of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin – and in particular her joke: “I can see Russia from my house.” It was so good that Fey won an Emmy Award. Palin herself appeared on the show this 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.