Jimmy Fallon said that looking back on the interview he did with then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016, he would do things “differently.”
“I did not do it to ‘normalize’ [Trump] or to say I believe in his political beliefs or any of that stuff,” the host of the “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” explained to the Hollywood Reporter Tuesday when asked about the backlash he got for the interview he had with Trump.
“I saw other comedians from other shows making fun of me on Twitter and I go, ‘OK, now I’m just gonna get off,'” he added. “They know the show. I’m just doing five hours a week. I get in at 10 in the morning, I work ’til seven at night and I’m just trying to make a funny show.”
“It was definitely a down time,” he continued when asked about the feeling on the show after Trump’s appearance. “And it’s tough for morale. There’s 300 people that work here, and so when people are talking that bad about you and ganging up on you, in a really gang-mentality…”
“You go, ‘Alright, we get it. I heard you,” Fallon shared. “You made me feel bad. So now what? Are you happy? I’m depressed. Do you want to push me more?”
“What do you want me to do? You want me to kill myself? What would make you happy?’ Get over it,” he added. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to make anyone angry. I never do and I never will. It’s all in the fun of the show. I made a mistake. I’m sorry if I made anyone mad. And, looking back, I would do it differently.”
He also explained that worrying about the ratings was not his job when asked about other late night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert passing him up and their decision to make their shows very political and anti-Trump.
“The ratings never bothered me,” Fallon explained. “I don’t really care about the ratings. I never will. That’s someone else’s job at NBC.”
