See Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley Lampoon Trump, Hillary at CMA Awards

We knew it was coming: There was no way that Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley were going to miss a chance to work this year’s insane election season into their CMA Awards monologue. And, boy, did they. Paisley even claimed the CMAs were “rigged.”

Riffing on Donald Trump’s lexicon and the tension of the campaign – Paisley jokingly calling Underwood a “nasty woman,” using “bigly” – the crux of the bit was a riff on Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” with an actual basket of “deplorables” that contained such choice items as Miranda Lambert’s “ammo,” Willie Nelson’s pot-ted meat (get it? pot? Yeah, we do) and “Girl Crush” hard soda. “Don’t drink that during the show or you’re going to have to take a Wiki-leak,” Underwood fired at her co-host. Note taken. 

The monologue also included a number of musical bits by the co-hosts, including a back and forth with NFL great (and insurance-company ad man) Peyton Manning in the audience. (Watch the full monologue above.)