The former "Tonight Show" host also laments the need to "take a side" politically in late night today
Jay Leno weighed in on President-elect Donald Trump's historic win over Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, telling "The Talk" that it was "a great day for democracy."
While the former "Tonight Show" host admitted that "I was not a fan" of the divisive MAGA Republican politician, he said that he believed the election to be "fair" and "honest."
"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," he said. "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."
Watch the segment from Leno's "The Talk" interview below:
The conversation began Wednesday with "The Talk" co-host Natalie Morales asking the 74-year-old comedian about his time hosting "The Tonight Show" after such high-profile and impactful events.
"Jay, we had a historic election last night and you are no stranger to going on and doing a live show, 'The Tonight Show,' after big elections like this," Morales said. "What do you remember about those days?"
"Well, you know it was different, in my day you kind of made fun of both sides," Leno responded. "Now you kind of have to take a side and yeah, it's little bit different."
In a recent interview with TheWrap, Leno went one step further and blamed the polarization in the United States that's lead to the need to "take a side" in part on Trump himself.
"People say to me, 'Oh I bet you wish you were doing "The Tonight Show" when Trump was president.' No, I don't," he told TheWrap. "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."
Watch Leno's "The Talk" appearance in the video above.