Jay Leno stops by CBS daytime talk show Speech On Wednesday, he will give his perspective on the 2024 presidential election as someone who has spent years of his career covering elections. The Tonight Show. During his appearance, the 74-year-old explained why the landscape has changed in his decade away from late-night games and why elections are actually good for democracy.
When asked by host Natalie Morales what he remembered about the days when he had to host a show right after a major election, Leno replied candidly: “It was different in my time, you were making fun of both sides.”
Mimicking the act of writing hate letters, he continued: “'Now you and your Republican' 'Well, you and your Democrat friends'… so you get angry letters from both sides.”
“You kind of have to take sides now, and yeah, it's a little different,” Leno explained, before finding a positive outcome in the outcome — even if it wasn't what he had hoped for. “But the nice thing about this election was that it was fair and honest. OK, I wasn't a fan, but that's okay. This is the President of the United States, let's all come together, thank you very much.”
Leno said he was relieved we didn't have to relive the rancor of the 2020 election when it came to hand-counting votes in swing states that triggered nationwide protests.
“You know, my fear was that I was going to watch this and it would be, 'There's 1,100 votes out of 300 million…' and it's going to be name-calling,” he added. “Okay, the answer is, this is what happened. It was done. There was no cheating. Everyone said it was honest. So it was a great day for democracy.”
Time will tell whether his optimism for the country will come true.
