Alec Baldwin – who reprised his goofy portrayal of Donald Trump opposite Jim Carrey’s Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live over the weekend – has shot back at “the perception we’re mocking [the president] while he’s sick”.

Responding to criticism that the sketch lampooning the first debate was insensitive, Alec explained himself on Instagram.

Although a few jokes in the skit subtly alluded to the president’s recent coronavirus diagnosis, Alec insisted that if Trump were gravely ill, the show “wouldn’t go near that”, pointing out that doctors and representatives were giving upbeat updates on the president’s condition, suggesting he wasn’t in real danger.

“We only have their word to go by,” the star said. “And if their word had been that he was in serious trouble, then we probably wouldn’t have done it. … I can assure you we wouldn’t have.”

In the sketch, Alec’s version of Trump at one point said: “The China virus has been very mean to me by being a hoax. And that statement will not come back to haunt me later this week.”

Jim Carrey’s Biden later declared: “I believe in science and karma. Now just imagine if science and karma could somehow team up to send us all a message about how dangerous this virus can be.”

Looking towards SNL’s Trump, he added: “I’m not saying I want it to happen. Just imagine it did.”

As for the show skewering Trump for his combativeness and interruptions during the debate, that was fair game, Alec said.

“We thought the debate was something topical, and we didn’t have anything with him in a hospital bed,” he explained. “You’d have to have a very good reason to avoid that, topicality-wise, and nobody thought that they were mocking somebody’s illness by doing that.”

The New York Post’s Johnny Oleksinski was among those critics who were not impressed with the show’s decision to poke fun at Trump following his diagnosis. 

“Anybody who thought Saturday Night Live might choose sensitivity in the wake of President Trump being diagnosed with Covid-19 was proven wrong immediately during the show’s uncomfortable Season 46 premiere,” the critic wrote in his review.

“Was the awkwardness of sending up a 74-year-old man who is hospitalised with a deadly new virus worth it? Hardly.”