Joe Biden Jokes With Jimmy Fallon About Ratings But Gets Serious About Trump and QAnon
President Joe Biden made his first appearance on late-night TV since he was sworn into office in January with a virtual interview on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” where he touched on a range of subjects, including inflation and his own approval rating.
The President’s famous self-deprecating humor was on full display as he joked about his “low” approval rating with Fallon on Friday night, but he also got serious when he criticized the QAnon conspiracy and Donald Trump’s “Big Lie,” saying they have made political discourse “awful hard.”
Fallon asked the President if he pays attention to approval ratings. “Well, not anymore,” President Biden replied. “I’m not joking. I would pay attention when they’re in the mid-60s, but now they’re in the 40s, I don’t pay attention anymore.”
Fallon: How much do you pay attention to approval ratings?
Biden: Well, not anymore. Im joking. I would pay attention in the mid-sixties, but now in the mid-fourties, I don’t pay attention anymore.
— Poli Alert (@polialertcom) December 11, 2021
The President had been a bit late to begin his segment because he had been delivering a eulogy for the late Senator Bob Dole. “We’re friends. We disagree, but we’re friends,” the President said, speaking to the bipartisan nature of his relationship with Dole. He lamented how things have changed since he began his political career in the early 1970s. “We used to have an awful lot of that relationship and it still exists except that the QAnon and the extreme elements of the Republican Party and what Donald Trump keeps sort of—seems to me—feeding, you know, with the Big Lie. It makes it awful hard,” President Biden explained.
NBC's 'Tonight Show' gave 16.5 minutes to Joe Biden boosting Friday night. Jimmy Fallon: Saw you at the Kennedy Center Honors. "We gave you a standing ovation because I go, 'Here he is. He's bringing class back. He's a classy guy, and you're bringing class back to the office.'" pic.twitter.com/zm8cgIZRl9
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) December 11, 2021
President Biden was referring to Trump’s repeated claims of unsubstantiated voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and the QAnon conspiracy which posits, among other claims, that Trump was fighting an international cabal of Satanic pedophiles.
‘Tis the season (to get boosted). See you soon, @FallonTonight! https://t.co/o5BVMo8oL3
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 10, 2021
Watch President Biden and Jimmy Fallon, below.