Alec Baldwin as the ‘SNL’ Donald Trump does cringeworthy embrace of leaked video scandal

(Warning: graphic language in video)

The cold-open sketch of this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” starts slow, but then dives fully into mocking the scandal engulfing Donald Trump’s campaign.

After a few jokes making fun of last week’s vice presidential debate, the late-night comedy show cuts away to a faux CNN interview with Alec Baldwin impersonating Donald Trump.

And Baldwin’s embrace of Trump’s 2005 comments, published Friday afternoon by the Washington Post, gets awkward.

Baldwin directly quotes Trump boasting about groping women — saying “grab them by the p****” — while defending the GOP nominee’s actions. He repeatedly mispronounces the word “apologize,” apparently unfamiliar with the term.

“Listen, OK, this was way back in 2005. It was 11 years ago, back when I was just a young, childish, 59-year-old man,” he offers.

Baldwin goes on to trash his Republican critics, some of whom have called on him to drop out in the aftermath of the scandal. Asked to address female voters, he delivers a cringeworthy promise to go further than groping. And in the closing moments of the interview, the “30 Rock” star gets caught in a new hot mic moment, making lewd comments while discussing Hurricane Matthew.

The faux CNN interview later cuts to Hillary Clinton’s Democratic campaign headquarters, where everyone is partying.