Jimmy Fallon was widely and thoroughly derided for his softball interview with Donald Trump last week. Twitter was SO MAD at him. And as I watched the clips, I got mad too. The thing about it is… Fallon just doesn’t prioritize “being a good interviewer.” He wants his guests to have fun, he wants his clips to go viral, but he has never wanted to actually make news through his interviews. And that blew up in his face with the Trump interview. When Fallon was asked about it by TMZ over the weekend, Fallon shrugged off the criticism, saying: “I mean, have you seen my show? I’m never too hard on anyone.”
So with that in mind, Fallon interviewed Hillary Clinton on the Tonight Show. The interview was filmed last Friday, I believe, but only aired last night. Again, Fallon softballed a political candidate, and Hillary was left to her own devices to discuss what she wanted to discuss and direct the conversation, basically. I don’t know if that was how Fallon reacted to the Trump criticism, but it sure feels like it. It feels like Fallon just gave Hillary a platform for a Tonight-Show-embedded campaign ad.
Here’s the bit where Hillary talks about her health and how she really thought she could work through pneumonia. Fallon jokes her with a surgical mask.
Hillary talks about running-in-heels, aka campaigning as a woman, and what this election cycle has been like.
Hillary talks about bigotry, Birtherism, Donald Trump’s history of racism and more. This is best part of the interview.
Fallon does a bit where he reads letters from kids. One little kid suggests that Hillary needs to cut her hair and go back to her Senate-era hairstyle.
All in all, was this the best Hillary interview ever? No. But it didn’t fill me with rage and I think it was the least Fallon could do after screwing up so badly with the Trump interview.
Incidentally, there is some good news for Hillary today: there’s a new poll out where she regained some ground nationally and that means I can stop having panic attacks. And sources tell Politico that President George HW Bush plans to vote for Hillary Clinton. You know Bush Sr. is very close to Bill Clinton, right? I wouldn’t be surprised if HW was going to vote for Hillary.
Photos courtesy of WENN/NBC.
Not that it’s an important thing but just a general observation- that color looks fantastic on her.
I thought the same thing.
Ya Know?? I Appreciate! like, last week I was telling my Bf, I’m sorry But She Has the Casual/Power player/formal Old Lady with money game ON LOCK
QQ, that is, literally, the best description of Secretary Clinton I have read in a long time. Mine was HBIC with a penchant for suit coats.
I may have to steal both of those. HBIC is amazing.
For some reason, I wouldn’t be surprised if W voted for Hillary. I’m sure Laura will.
I mean, I feel like they have to for Jeb (exclamation mark!).
Yeah, I cant imagine any Bush will be voting Trump. Not after what he did to Jeb! and how he talks about Ws post 9/11 legacy.
JEB’s son George P Bush has endorsed and is campaigning for Trump.
I googled and he’s staking his political future in Texas. Texas! It’s as bad as Alabama. You’ve got to be a wingnut(or cater to them)to get ahead. Not that that excuses it. Buck up and think of your father, P. Maybe people would understand.
Yea, the fact that George P Bush is campaigning for Trump shows there are some major daddy issues there. He doesn’t need to do that to ensure his future in Texas – I think he wanted to. But yes, this is the very least Fallon could do, not that it changes my opinion of him – I now dislike him more than I ever disliked Leno.
And that is a major disappointment. Jeb’s son is half hispanic. He would be the first one Orangino throws over the wall if he won.
If you’re an atheist, please visit Alabama. You may leave still not believing in God, but at least you’ll know there’s a Hell.
Hey! All of Alabama is not bad. I was born and raised there and I turned out ok!
There are plenty of us good ones in Alabama, but there are way too many whose motto is “Dumb as dirt and damn proud of it.”
When he pulled out that Pink Floyd CD and she said “that’s as close as he’s going to get to a wall” about Trump I was so proud of her.
…Im basically astounded that Trumps campaign is back on track…!…up the workers!….
She looks great. I’m about 5 years younger than her and I admire her hair and skin, as well as the way she dresses.
She does look great. After almost losing my fit and healthy teen to pneumonia I know how serious it can be and how quickly it can take a turn for the worse…so I am beyond relieved she seems to have recovered. I was really nervous for a bit there.
Oh my goodness.. I’m so sorry.
Actually, my panic is in full-on freakout mode, and, at this moment, believe he is going to win the election after everything I’ve been reading for the past five days and how well he is doing in most battleground states. He had 12,000 at his rally in Florida filled to capacity, with many thousands outside of the event. I have to back away from reading anymore until the debates. It’s too anxiety-inducing.
But in the debates it will be, oh, he did better than we expected, because the bar is set so low.
It will be okay. First of all, rally turnout isn’t indicative of voter turnout. Walter Mondale had huge crowds in 1984 right before he got pulverized by Reagan. Same with Bernie Sanders’ crowds this year.
Trump can win FL and OH and still lose. He can win FL, OH, and NC and still lose. He has a steep electoral hill to climb.
I wouldn’t use Florida to extrapolate anything nationally. Lots of nuts concentrated in Florida.
According the latest poll this morning Hillary is up by 5% with likely voters. Hillary 50%, Trump 45%. Also, it was reported BO will be campaigning for her 2x per week until the end of the campaign. I believe she is going to win. Donald it not of sound mind imo. Yesterday he started saying Lester H will be biased against him because he’s a democrat and every thing is rigged against him. The man is coo coo for coco puffs. The Jr. Son is also off his rockers imo.
I just heard not 5 minutes ago that Hillary is up by 5 point in Florida. That right there makes me feel a bit better than I did yesterday. If Trump can’t win Florida he can’t win the election.
I’m with you on the panic attacks and feeling that he will win. It really seems like his campaign is on a roll and she is just trying to keep up. The press gives him a free pass whereas they keep harping on her – it is 100% ridiculous. This is the year that is going to prove that we no longer care about any substance or qualifications from here on out it will only get worse… that is the Trump legacy.
It is sad that HC takes million$ from countries that kill gays. Throw them off tall buildings, as per Sharia Law. Trump has many LGBT Orgs embracing him. Nobody should be killed for being gay! It’s detestable to even think about. Remember #Pulse.
I loved this interview and people could finally see Hillary’s humour.
What I really liked about this interview is that Hillary knows what to talk about when. She joked at the right moment and was serious at the moment.
I never trust those polls especially since Brexit but every single sane and decent American needs to go out there and vote for Hillary and Democrats all the way. The Republicans are misused their power to try and take away women’s, African Americans, Latin’s etc basic rights.
What I find especially pathetic is how they are using their powers to make sure that everything bad about Hillary needs to come before the election (trials, emails etc) because the public needs to know about the candidate. But then they turn around and postpones ALL Trumps trials until after the election. How vile is that?
Speaking of late night hosts, did anyone see Colbert last night? He did an EPIC shredding of Trump. You would have thought he was on HBO, the language he used.
OMG it was brilliant! Totally agree with his entire piece and how indignant he was over Trump’s BS. I really hate people – not one peep out of his supporters on the reversal of his birther witch hunt. This man is the worst of humanity and all of those people supporting him are just as bad.
He needs to do something…his show sucks. Might as well rename himself “Jimmy” so all 3 shows can be exactly the same.
Considering the networks basically let Trump have a long commercial for his businesses last week, Hillary should at least get the same time to promote herself the way she wants. But no, the networks are letting this election be covered the way 2000 was and it is going to be a mess if Trump wins because no one bothered to ask him tough questions.
In defense of Fallon the trend of politicians seeking out softball interviews and eschewing traditional media is in full swing. As much as I love Obama he has done this for most of his presidency. Fallon isn’t equipped to interview a politician nor does he pretend to be.I’m much more upset about the unfair treatment that Hillary received in the Matt Lauer interview than the fact that Fallon was so nice to Trump (although I didn’t watch it).
Yeah, the Lauer town hall was egregious. Fallon has never claimed to be a journalist. I think the line between hard news and entertainment has become so blurred that people are misplacing their outrage a bit. I didn’t like Fallon going easy on Trump but he’s a comedian and this was his show so it was his prerogative. Had he gone harder on Trump I’m guessing people might have accused Fallon of not knowing his place as a comedian/entertainer. Who knows.
I think it is the network as a whole that is getting it from both ends. First the Lauer fiasco and now this. When you fire a man from your network for using hateful, racist language only to turn around and give him a platform to say said language again, yeah, you are going to get burned.
Jimmy Fallon isn’t a journalist and doesn’t pretend to be one; he’s the guy who wants everyone to like him. He’s not the guy we should be looking at to go hard on Trump.
Only somewhat related –
I am heartbroken the man they think is behind the IEDs in New York is from Afganistan. I think that will help Trump and encourage this wrong headed belief that refugees are scary, are not extremely well vetted, and are not truly suffering and victims. The “true. Syrian refugees are victims of a brutal regime and brutal Civil War conducted by a leader willing to use chemical weapons on his own people. It sucks that this dirt bag will now represent them in some people’s minds.
Also, Trump Jr’s tweet about it with the campaign created meme/”infographic” is truly gross. It shows a huge white bowl full of Skittles and says if I told you three of the Skittles were poisoned and would kill you would you grab a handful and eat them?
– First, stop dehumanizing suffering and vulnerable people. They are people not a Skittle.
– Second, it is a terrible metaphor. First of all the Skittles are refugees and you are the United States. One refugee (or even all three together) are not going to “kill” America unless we let them and abandon our principles because we chose to cling to fear and hate rather than our values and ideals.
– Third you can not reduce a whole group down to the worst few. The people that will post this picture would flip out if you delivered that same message but used police, white males with legally obtained guns, soldiers, Christians but all those groups are responsible for more American deaths than refugees. Every group has bad actors, many have extremists, by virtue of having a group comprised of people there will be dangerous people who you may not identify until it is too late or have their actions minimized, justified, and swept under the rug because people in type knit groups tend to protect their own. The world is filled with terrible people but when it comes down to it they are responsible for their own actions. I remember a comidian joked about how he envied white people because they can do whatever they want without worrying about representing their entire race or whatever they do becomes get a stereotype. It seems to really be true. White males are responsible for most mass shootings, more likely to be serial killers, among other things however they are never condemned as a group by public figures and a significant amount of the population. The refugees should be extended the same courtesy.
This race gets worse and worse. There are lots of big issues filling probably more than one Supreme Court vacancy, Zika, a divided and extremely partisan Congress that can’t get anything done, ect but it is now only about her health, the latest crazy offensive thing Trump says, Bill Clinton’s love of balloons, and Ben Carson’s luggage. I can’t wait for this to finally be over.
Thank you.
Yes, I agree you shouldn’t reduce a group down to the worst few. But that’s exactly what Hillary did when she said that half of Trump’s supporters were a “basket of deplorables.”
Things like this don’t work toward unifying our country, something a presidential candidate should strive for.
iMovie, the only mistake Hillary make was using the word “1/2” when talking about some of his supporters were deplorable state. She should have said some are a basket of deplorable state. Some of the shirts, buttons and fighting at his rallies could only be done by deplorables. I was shocked to see what’s printed on T shirts and buttons worn by his supporters. The tv don’t show what’s going on at his rallies, sickening.
She wasn’t wrong and never said all of his supporters. I think it is A-OK for a presidential candidate to call out the David Duke’s and neo-Nazi’s of our country.
EM, she didn’t call out a few specific individuals or groups. She made a terrible, blanket assumption about the character of over 50 million Americans.
Do you think she doesn’t have supporters who are terrible people? If so, you are incredibly naïve. It exists on both sides.
It’s not going to help Trump when her called the nyc polices weak for knowing who the terrorists are and not going after them. He’s saying the same polices who solved the bomings in less than 2 days weak. The man is a fool, imo, end of story.
Yeah but his supporters are fools as well…
LOL. Lindsay you just posted about not reducing a whole group down to its worst few and then you make this statement that Trump’s supporters are all fools.
But it does help him the Police Federation has endorsed him and I’ve seen more and more Trump stickers on cars belonging to Policemen/women.
I am a little confused at the expectation/double standard. From the clips Fallon structured both interviews in a lighthearted fashion which is his shtick. Why is he under so much fire for the Trump interview but passed over on the Clinton? Should he have softballed Clinton and been tough on Trump? It’s not like he changed his format to give either candidate a hand up.
Agree 100%. His interview with Hillary would have been just as light if he had interviewed her first and wasn’t dealing with backlash.
I love that he didn’t apologize and stood his ground.
Basically, the only people complaining are those who want Clinton to win and want the entire media to help her do so. They’re angry that the referees aren’t doing enough to rig the ballgame in her favor.
No actually the people that are complaining are those that are sick of the double standard and harping on Hillary but yet softballing Trump.
November can’t come soon enough!! Although, like most of the world, we live in fear of a Drumpf presidency. I refuse to believe he will win though. It just cannot happen.
Jimmy is a terrible interviewer so I don’t know why many were surprised that he went easy on Trump. Jimmy is good for skits, that’s it.
Ru kidding me ? Fallon is a “comedian”. Not a very funny one , but he’s definitely not a journalist . A journalist would have never messed up Sonalds hair like he did . It’s not his job to grill Trump or Hillary. It’s his job to try to make people laugh !
Jimmy seemed nervous/star struck … I think he did fine, for what he is. I’ve always enjoyed his show. But maybe he shouldn’t have had trump on, period.
If he had had his tight pants on, it would have been different.