Piers Morgan Interviews Jay Leno on Donald Trump, David Letterman, Harvey Weinstein And More

area, this is something I love about America, we are the only ones now. place in the world if you go to Europe we wanted to talk about the economy so we went to the Department of Economics at the University we arrived at a truck stop in Ohio you know here in the United States you go to the truck stop you talk to the guy and he, what he has, he would rather have an expert, you know, what does it mean to you to be an American? Well, he just makes me laugh because it's the only place where we say, we don't want to, I don't want to.

I want an experienced politician in the White House. I don't want a heart surgeon to do my operation. This guy says he studied medicine at home, but he said he can do a better job. Oh my God. I'm going to try that guy instead of him. I mean, that's where we are. Now I love listening to people. I don't want anyone who knows everything about the government to run the government well. Why not? Why would you want an expert? If I have a broken transmission, I want one type of transmission. I'm not. I'm going to get a well.

I will take a look. I don't know much about it, but by God, you already know. Do you feel that the United States is still the land of opportunity? You still have. You want to appreciate America. That's why I love immigrants, you know I love the people that come here, my new favorites are Nigerians, every Nigerian I know is smart ambitious, family oriented, you really know that i i i I I IMA NIGERIAN MIE EN and hug me hug me for no reason oh and they give me a hug and I don't understand but he so confused because I just found it funny but yeah I think it's cool I see Indian I'm American I see uh that's why I mean people from India, uh, very, I mean, this is all you know, classic example we used to jaywalk, we knocked on the door, yeah I remember knocking on the door right around here, the guy opens the door, he's Spanish but he speaks English and he's dressed nicely. this way, he is, I mean, like my father is here, the father comes to the house with a jacket, a tie and a vet in the house, he comes and goes to meet my grandson and the grandson comes in, He has a t-shirt. with an obscenity and has a video game in his hand, it made me laugh because what happens is these people come here, they work hard, they eat pizza, they eat hamburgers, they listen to rock music, they just become American, they knock it down and we need another new group to come and start all over again I mean, that's what I love about this, I mean, I think it's great, I love The Immigrant experience and that's not, I'm not saying open border, I'm not talking, just talking about the people who come here want to come here well America is the ultimate meltdown it really seems to be I don't see people oh we're trying to get into Moscow we can't no no one wants to go It would have been a better country if the British royalty had continued to oversee things.

Oh, that would have been horrible. It would be terrible. That would have been horrible. what I want to be Prince J my mother from Scotland my mother from well, I was going to say, I mean the similarity you have with Donald Trump is that you both had Scottish mothers, you came here and your fathers were salesmen in New York. true, yes, that's true, that's true, is that where the parallels end, I think that's where the parallels end. Again, I just don't agree with some of the moral decisions and other things, you know, you think one of the secrets to his success is because I can't deny the success or the popularity is that he has well, is it success or popularity? ?

I mean, what are you talking about? Well, success in the sense that he won the presidency without experience. I mean, that's pretty extraordinary. In terms of popularity? 10 million

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votes in the last election than in the first, which is quite surprising given how divisive his tenure was and that he could very well win again. The survey suggests that he has a very good chance, it is one of the secrets of the popularity that Trump has with There is a large volume of population here that has a comedic streak, it makes people laugh, yes, well, you know, and for me , I think you have to have the ability to do it.

I don't dislike people who like Trump, I mean, I meet people all the time. Maybe you know guys who are mechanics or blue-collar guys who like Trump for that reason and I like them, I like them, I don't know, we live in an era now, if you have an electric car, you're vegan and you voted for Biden and you want Governor Nome to be president of the United States if you have a gas car you like guns you like them you know the idea that you have to be one or the other to me I have like I have friends on both sides, it's like when I used to watch the news.

I used to receive news that I didn't know or wasn't interested in, but I understood it because it was part of the news. Now when we watch the news, we watch MSNBC. We either watch Fox or we just watch the news we want to watch and I find that really annoying. I like to learn something I didn't know or hear other points of view. I mean I talk to I have friends who are big Trump supporters and we make fun of each other I don't dislike them I just don't agree with them the idea that you can't disagree with someone without hating them seems just horrible to me I just don't get it That's one of the reasons why there is a feeling that actually much less is being done in the Senate and in Congress because now the tribalism on both sides is very visceral.

I think it is very difficult for politicians to reach agreements with the other side. I think so, and if you do, you'll be a traitor or whatever, you know, I mean, you know I like Mitt Romney, I think he's a fantastic guy, a great human being, the fact that he got banned from the Republican Party. because of his views it's crazy, but I think it is. he is right. I mean, I don't want a president who's been impeached twice. It just seems like we can do better. Do you think anyone should be allowed to run for president anywhere if he faces 100 criminal charges?

Well you can, the Constitution says you can, you think that's right, well what I believe doesn't matter, as an American, well I have the right not to vote for them right, so I would, here's my I vote if you elect someone who is a criminal as president, okay, I have to accept your choice. That's what a democracy is. I get it, so the idea that you think you should be allowed to stop that, no, if he's capable of tricking you or tricking you or whatever you want to call it. Well that's how things work, what do you think of woke culture, especially when it comes to cancel culture?

This kind of strange fascism pushed by new liberals which of course is the antithesis of what they profess to represent, but what do they do? You think about it, you know, I always meet comedians who say, uh, you know, you can't even compliment women any

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, well, yeah, you can't go, hey, nice tits, okay, if you said, oh, that is a really pretty dress. No one remembers it, actually there are some who now would accept no, but look, but I think objectifying what I'm saying is that I said oh, that's a nice outfit, oh, thank you, I mean, I'm using people's common sense. normal, no.

One extreme or the other, most people know when you've crossed the line, you know, I mean, it's just that I, people just think this isn't going well. JG hugging a woman you've never met and just hugging you a little too tight. I know, I mean you, you have an internal sense of what a me is, what is inappropriate, did the me too campaign go too far? Does the pendulum return? Well, no, I think some pendulum swings to the far left, to the far right before coming back. centering is just something that happens, I mean, yeah, no, I think it is what it is and I think you're seeing it come back to center now, okay, I think there's a lot of anger, a lot of animosity, uh, women have built up to over the years. up, you know, if you were someone, this happened to you in the '60s, '70s and '80s, you'll be pretty angry in the '90s and '00s, so I get it, I get it and it's unfair for it to change like that, yeah. but it's unfair, it was also the other way around, so you interviewed a lot of people who were meowed, mhm, it was a surprise to you when you found out what some of them were actually like, well for a lot of them you knew they were. so I mean there aren't many people where I go oh really, I'm surprised you know it's Harvey Weinstein.

I mean, he was always a bully, he was a bully, he would call me and say, "I need this and that on the show." tomorrow night and I go, I can't, I'm fine, kick them out, I'm in a hurry, I'm not going to do it and he would yell at me and bully me, well, you're not going to get anything, you know, he'd just be like that all and he was a bully, so when he got caught it didn't surprise me in the least, huh, but what was your question? Well, did you feel like there were any, for example, that you know where you felt like they were given a deal? rough card, yes I know some were difficult, did they still do the writing?

Yeah, okay, so you know you really have to be on the other side to understand that it's one of those problems. I mean, people used to say things like they remembered some. Senator, a little before the movie Me Too, someone had been raped and well, you should sit back and enjoy it, if it's inevitable, it's going to happen to you, that was Ho Ho, that was like a kid's joke and it was a kid's joke , but that's how it was. It's not a joke for women, you know, I mean, it wasn't that long ago, racial jokes were made on television or radio, especially radio shows, they made black jokes, oh God, I know a man black he don't care, you ain't black.

You have no right to say that and I believe the same with women too. I mean, female hosts used to be a common topic for comedians, blondes, all that kind of stuff, uh, and it takes something like this to attract people. not when you talk to men under 30 now they really understand very differently, it's very different and my sons ruled when they were 20, they think very differently about it and it's all for the better, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, well, it's better to the point. I would say that it takes any kind of humor too far.

What I would frame as office joke style humor, like we were saying, they take the Mickey out of each other and send it to each other. another, that has almost become a crime in all areas, where no one dares to make jokes about anything or anyone for fear that someone will be offended. I'm a comedian. I don't really have that problem. I've had it a bit. from time to time so you know what I do I apologize you know something my point was to make you laugh many times the point is not to make you laugh you had a story where you are in a Chinese restaurant with your wife and the waitress got offended and told me We were in a small Chinese restaurant and um, there was a waitress.

It's like the mom runs the cash register and she's about 55 years old. The dad was in the child. The kids were so it's like a family. place, you know, and it might be 14 tables, mostly college students and my wife eating and the woman is just taking orders. I said, I said man. This woman is really working hard, you know, and a college student said, uh, she's a waitress. I said well I said you know look I'm not arguing with you I said I try to see what I'm saying and I thought that woman was appropriate I said if I would have said given that she is actually a woman yes I know, but if I would have said that server you said having said woman I said I I said I told him you know I didn't say waitress I didn't say girl I didn't say stewardess I said that woman is really working hard you think you'd be offended at the butt part, but no, uh, it's the woman part, well, yeah, she said, I which is crazy and said, well, you know, some things I didn't understand, just and the woman apologized to the girl, she's going fine, I guess I'm going, you understand what I am. saying, I mean, I looked, I said Okay, she's a woman and I thought from the inside, okay, well, this woman is really working hard because she knows all the tables and she takes the A and and and this person said I said it's pop and It wasn't really pop, but when you see, for example, the problem around women's sports and trans athletes, where you see that you know very tall, powerful men, former biological men or biological men who identified as men and now identify as women and begin to crush the women. their sports fields that seems crazy to me well, I can't disagree with you on that, I get it, I get it, I don't know enough about that, I mean, I know I have friends of mine whose daughters were Olympic hopefuls and they were in second or third place. when they would have been first if it had been biologically but you know, I don't know, I don't know, it's just unfair, isn't it okay?

At first glance it seems unfair to me, no, I don't study. The problem is enough and this is the problem with a lot of people too, they just give their opinion without knowing all the facts, so I don't know all the facts about it, but on the surface I would say well, I mean, couldn't you have done it? three categories that you know, but I don't know, I don't know, it's complicated. I appeared on the Tonight Show several times when you were the host. I loved it and what caught my attention was the whole type of mythology that surrounds you.

The Tonight. Show your rivals and so on,happier, but if you are a terrible person you are not going to be happy because you are still a terrible person. I mean, you've interviewed so many very rich people. Yes, do you see evidence that money buys happiness? Well, it's not like that. It doesn't buy happiness, but it certainly could make you happier. I mean, it eliminates worries, it eliminates but also, in a way, creates others. Yes, but you can. I'm talking about the fact that I could give people scholarships or put a roof on my Uncle Louis' house. so when I get home, Jay gets the big meatball, big meatballs for Jay, he put the roof on, yeah, I get the big meatball, oh, I get the big meatball, so I mean, and that kind of thing is very funny yeah I googled how?

How much were you worth? Yes, do you know what Google says you are worth? I'm sure it's a ridiculous $450 million, yeah, well, I don't know anything about that and I'm like, wow, I mean, this garage alone is going to be worth it. more than that, yeah, that's pretty good, do you know what a garage is worth? Have you sold all the cars? No, it depends, because if you have to sell them, they are worthless. You know, they're only worth money if you have them. You're selling them before you have to sell once people notice, oh, there's a clearance sale, you know they show up.

Clearance sale pun taken care of, yeah, shortly after you recovered from your incident at the polls, yeah, here you got on a motorcycle, fell and broke a bunch of Well, no, so me, a guy, I had a field across a driveway without a flag, so I turned a corner, the sun was in my eyes and boom, it hit me in the throat and threw me to the ground and the bike went on. Then I broke my face right here, so I had to call my face boy. Hey, listen, I need Dr. Gman Peter, I have, I need another face, what are you doing?

I said, well, the old face that you have was working really well, but yeah. it broke so he gave me another one it's been a tough year it looks like it's not that bad you look relatively fine there are people with bigger problems these are stupid self-inflicted problems that most people wouldn't be interested in and if you don't do it just make them funny way then you're just a celebrity complaining complaining you know I've been incredibly lucky in my life and if I can share it something with people that would be great but no I did it to complain and complain you know no one wants to hear how important Mavis has been for you.

Wonderful for me to have been married for 44 years, yeah, I mean, that's something else. You never really know. I just don't do it. I don't understand these people who just fall into that trap. You know, that's another one where low self-esteem is a big thing because if this woman didn't sleep with me when she was 25, why would they sleep with me when I was? I'm 65 years old but I always meet friends, you know, you know, I think that prostitute really likes me no, she didn't like you, okay, she's a prostitute, she doesn't really like you, it's not a matter of no.

I think, I think so. the fact that she's giving him $1,500 I think that's really it, so no, I'm very lucky that I didn't because I have a very good wife and you know, I proved what the secret to longevity is, do you think? I think you know, remember telling this to Drew bored. I said marry your conscience. Find someone who is the person you wish they were. My wife. She does a lot of charity work and gets involved a lot with women in Afghanistan and all that kind of stuff. about things and women's problems and things and I said oh, I'm a little selfish, I collect cars and you know it, so I'm going to marry someone who's a little better than me and that keeps everything under control, yeah, you.

I never had children, you wish you had. I came back, no, we just never had kids, you just never know something. The 44 years passed in the blink of an eye. You know, I like the idea that if she had a concert, she could go with me. I don't want to go to a concert and meet a woman there and then come back in a year and oh, this is Jay Junr, you know, no, so he would take her with me everywhere and that worked out well. I guess you think you'd ever stop working well if I had a stroke or something, but only if you were incapacitated.

Well, I mean, I'd like you to voluntarily stop working. You still love the oh yes, the thrill of laughing. Is that really what you want? It's about oh yeah, I think that's the funnest thing in the world, I really mean because that's why I travel alone. When you travel alone, this is what happens, you become famous and then you have people do things for you. You know, I was telling the story that I have a place in Rhode Island, so I go to Rhode Island and I always go to Joe's Pizza, okay, soon one of the guys says, hey, it's a new place, Nicholas Pizza, and oh , I'll try.

It's great, I get there and there's a line, something, line, I tell him, Jay, yeah, it's Joe, what Joe's pizza. Hi Joe, how are you? What are you doing here? Something is wrong with our pizza. I go, no, no, okay, he says, what are they? what you're doing here I said, so I'm just making up a lie. I'm doing well, you know I had a coupon. I guess I'll try it. You know, look, he uses the coupon. We all agreed not to use the coupon. He is using the coupon. okay now now now I'm in this now I'm in this lie I'm going fine um yeah, I don't actually have the coupon no, you said he well, no, I'm going to go talk to him don't talk to him, okay, now I'm in this stupid line and it made me laugh because if someone had bought me the pizza, that wouldn't have happened, you know, the same thing happened, you don't have an Entourage at all no, no, I didn't have any managers, I did a gig for McDonald's, You know, a corporate event, so they gave me like a stack of Happy Meal coupons.

I'm doing well, now I don't like spending money or throwing away. things are great, I'll have lunch at McDonald's until you like War Buffett, yeah, yeah, so I'm in this, I'm in this fancy car, that Mercedes SLR, where the doors go up like this, so I pull it G and I tell him: can you? I get two Happy Meals, the girl says, "Okay sir, we only allow one Happy Meal per visit." I said, "Well, okay, he goes, no, no, but I know it's you." I can let myself talk to Magic. No, don't talk, no, just wait. you stop, get on, so I stop on the right, then the door opens on the right and the kids come and the manager, Miss L, we usually have a policy, then I hear a kid say HJ Longo, you're arguing about their Happy Meal coupon.

I don't. arguing about my Happy Meal coupon Just looking in this half a million dollar car I like an idiot like fighting with a 16 year old at McDonalds over a Happy Meal just made me laugh gu says I I I'll give you two Happy Meal coupons this time, but usually I go, yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm telling you, it's really funny, well, that's what I mean, that's the fun thing about being on the road, I just miss it. things happen when you had the fireball injury right when the phone rings and it's the president of the United States, Joe Biden, well that's the funny thing, okay, because before that, my friend Steve was in his car and it's on speakerphone and now normally when you might get a call from the president, it's this general, yes, it is, are you prepared to get a call from the president of the United States?

Yes I am. Please stay on the line for one minute. President Bush will answer. the line Jay oh how are you from the car how do you sound hello Jay Jay it's Joe what Joe Joe Biden me oh Joe Biden president of the United States he says yes how are you feeling I'm fine sir thank you for calling no no it just made me laugh Jay , I'm Joe, it just made me laugh. I thought it was really fun and didn't you have a moment where you were with a group of your old friends? Oh no, that's what it was.

That was Barack Obama and them and they didn't, this is what Barack Obama went through. He had seen it on the news and he was running for president of the United States and at that time Hillary had it. Sona. I thought, well, this guy is a car maniac. Let's go catch him. so we called him oh he's excited he drives to T Rent A Car t-shirt over, you know, jacket over his shoulder, he sits down Jay, my name is Barack Hussein Obama and I'm running for president of the United States. I said, oh, let's look at a The Chicago community organizer, a black man, was Hussein's middle name.

You know you shouldn't even have to campaign. I think you're going to win and well, he thought that and we got along pretty well and he gave me his cell phone number. I heard about him and then he came one time and was president of the United States and this is what happens when you grow up in a small town and you have the same idiot friend you had when you were in eighth grade, so I'm telling you. them about some of my old friends from eighth grade, you know, so you know, President Obama gave me his phone number, let's call him.

I'm not, I'm not GNA, call them because he presides, you don't have it, no, no, no. uhh now it's like you know I said I got it I said what time is it Okay is it 3 o'clock or six o'clock okay I'll go to our dollar phone you know this is Brock Mr. President yeah Jay L .Jay, what can I do for you if I lose this number? Mr. President, you lose the number. Jay just made me laugh. My friends say: yeah, pretty stupid. He wanted to finish. You've come up with so many great jokes over the years and one. of my team and that's the best way to do it, just do the finishes without any configuration.

Actually, what we wanted to do was see if you could remember the punchlines well, probably not, so let's try because they're going to do it. To be funny, whether you can or not, but we made thousands, we did. I know thousands of tomatoes, so unfortunately for you, one of my team is a big fan of jeno, so he has carefully crafted them and seeing, he wants to see if you can remember them. punch you're not famous until oh I don't know I don't know what my mother has heard about you oh that my photo yes, that's good that was my mother my mother never never heard of anyone you know if God had wanted to vote, he would have given us the candidate correct.

There are now more obese people in the United States than there are overweight people. I think it's safe to say I don't know what that was after all these years. Diet Coke is a complete drink. failure, yes, today is Valentine's Day or as men like to call it, hostage day, some were extortion day, extortion day, okay and in America we like that Let everyone know about the good work we are doing. Anonymous, that's my favorite activity too, people want everyone to do it. I know we are doing this work anonymously, yes, yes, it has been a real pleasure.

Thanks, friend, it's a pleasure to see you speaking well.