Former late-night television host Jay Leno raised eyebrows after explaining on The Talk that he considered the election "a great day for democracy" despite not being a "fan" of Donald Trump's.
Leno said:
“The nice thing about this election is, it was fair, it was honest. OK, I was not a fan, but that’s OK, it’s the President of the United States — let’s all get together, thank you very much."
“You know, my fear is they’re going to be watching this, and there are 1,100 votes out of 300 million between, and it’s going to be name calling about, ‘OK, here’s the answer, OK? This is the thing.’ And it was done professionally — there was no cheating. Everybody says it was honest. I mean, it’s a great day for democracy."
When asked by co-host Natalie Morales about his experience as a late-night personality covering elections, Leno—who conducted the first interview with a sitting president on a late-night talk show with Barack Obama in 2009—said:
“Well, you know, it was different. In my day, you kind of made fun of both sides,” he said. “You’d get angry letters from both sides. ... Now you kind of have to take a side and, yeah, it’s little bit different.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
But many chafed at Leno's remarks—and pointed out how off his observation was.
Leno has previously described himself as "not a fan" of Trump's, at one point telling host Piers Morgan on Uncensored that "I think we could do a little bit better."
Leno questioned Trump's morals and, elaborating to Morgan, he suggested that "all these indictments, whatever it might be," should give people pause.
He also recalled a time when Trump appeared on his show, saying he "was an interesting character." However, Leno added that this January 6 business and all this other thing, it gets a bit much.”
What was bizarrely missing from Leno's remarks after this week's election was that the only reason the right isn't questioning the legitimacy of the election is that Trump won this time. This is what Trump does, calls elections into question ahead of time, then if he loses says, "see, it was fraud!" or if he wins declares it fair. The 2020 election was, of course, fair and legitimate as well, the fact that Trump called it into question and tried to overturn the will of the people doesn't change that fact. But in Leno's mind, it's suddenly a "great day for democracy" because Trump didn't whine about election fraud?
