Jay Leno Says Election Result Is a “Great Day for Democracy”

Jay Leno is taking an optimistic view of the result of the 2024 presidential election, saying it was a “great day for democracy” because “it was fair, it was honest.”

The former Tonight Show host spoke about Donald Trump’s victory during an appearance on The Talk on Wednesday. While he admitted that he is “no fan” of Trump, “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,” Leno continued. “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 profession — there was no cheating. Everybody says it was honest. I mean, it’s a great day for democracy.”

In a separate interview with TheWrap, Leno explained why he would have no desire to host The Tonight Show during Trump’s presidency, citing the country’s intense polarization. “People say to me, ‘Oh I bet you wish you were doing The Tonight Show when Trump was president.’ No, I don’t. Because when you really don’t like a guy, it’s worse … I mean, you see how polarizing it gets now. I sort of blame Trump for all of that. Because at The Tonight Show, we used to make fun of both sides, and people couldn’t really figure out your politics. So you got the whole audience. Now, you either get the Trump people, like Gutfeld, or you get the anti-Trump people, like Kimmel. Which, to me — I’ll take everybody’s money, thank you. I play both crowds.”