Jay Leno spoke about President-elect Donald Trump’s historic victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, telling “The Talk” that it’s “a great day for democracy.”
While the former “Tonight Show” host admitted he’s “not a fan” of the divisive MAGA Republican Party, he said he thought the election was “fair” and “honest.”
“The good thing about this election is that it was fair and honest. “Well, I didn’t like him, but okay, he’s the president of the United States. Let’s get together, thank you very much,” he said. “You know, my fear is that they’re going to be watching this, and there’s 1,100 votes out of 300 million in the middle, and there’s going to be insults saying: ‘Well, that’s the answer, okay?’ That’s the question. And he made his profession: He’s helpless. Everybody says he was honest. I mean, it’s a great day for democracy.”
Watch the clip of Leno’s interview on “The Talk” below:
The conversation began on Wednesday when The Talk co-host Natalie Morales asked the 74-year-old comedian about his time hosting The Tonight Show after such shocking and high-profile events.
Morales said: “Jay, we had a historic election last night, and he’s no stranger to continuing to host a live show called ‘The Tonight Show’ after an important election like this.” “What do you remember from those days?”
Leno replied: “Well, you know it was different, in my days you used to make fun of both sides.” “Now you have to take sides, and yes, it’s a little bit different.”
In a recent interview with TheWrap, Leno went a step further and attributed the polarization in America that led to the need to “take sides” in part to Trump himself.
“People tell me: ‘Oh, I bet you wish you were hosting The Tonight Show when Trump was president. “No, I don’t,” he told TheWrap. “Because when you don’t really like a guy, it’s even worse… I mean, you see how polarized it is now. I blame Trump for all of this. Because on ‘The Tonight Show’ we used to make fun of both sides and people couldn’t really understand your politics. Then you have the whole audience. Now, you either have Trump people, like Gutfeld, or you have anti-Trump people, like Kimmel. For me, I’ll take everyone’s money, thanks. “I play for both audiences.”
Watch Leno’s appearance on “The Talk” in the video above.
A source