Jimmy Fallon began Monday’s “The Tonight Show” with a somber tone and criticism of President Donald Trump.
“What happened over the weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, was just disgusting,” the Upstate New York native told the audience. “I was watching the news like everyone else, and you’re seeing Nazi flags and torches and white supremacists, and I was sick to my stomach.”
Fallon appeared to be fighting back tears as he talked about his daughters who “don’t know what hate is,” wondering aloud how he can tell them about what happened. He asked for parents, teachers and “leaders who appeal to the best in us” to help children understand.
President Donald Trump denounced the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other hate groups as “criminals and thugs” in a statement Monday, two days after blaming “many sides” for the violence in Virginia. “Racism is evil,” Trump declared more forcefully Monday.
“The fact that it took the president two days to come out and clearly denounce racists and white supremacists is shameful,” Fallon responded.
The former “Saturday Night Live” star, who was criticized last year for his hair-tussling interview with Trump during the election, also paid an emotional tribute to Heather Heyer, an anti-racist protester who was killed “standing up for what’s right” in Charlottesville. The 32-year-old woman died Saturday after white nationalist James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his car into a crowd, injuring 19 others. (via an article by Geoff Herbert on syracuse.com)
