David Letterman: "I would have to constantly be on the attack" if I was on late-night in Trump era

The Daily Beast

Letterman recalled having "bonehead" Donald Trump on as a late-night guest during his visit this morning to The View to promote Season 2 of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. Meghan McCain asked Letterman about Jay Leno's complaint that late-night had become too one-sided during the Trump presidency. “I always liked to humiliate and degrade both sides equally,” Leno told The View in March. “I can only speak for myself,” Letterman responded, according to The Daily Beast. “Jay would do the kind of show Jay would like to do and I feel like with things going on, current events seeming what they are—not seeming, actually being what they are— I would have to constantly be on the attack and I'd be fatigued but I would constantly being going at the easiest target because that makes your job much easier.” Letterman added that he didn't think he'd be able to go after both sides equally. “I think people have done pretty well going after one side, but then I understand how that also could alienate part of the audience,” he said. “So I agree with what Jay is saying, but for me I don't think I could operate that way.” Letterman pointed to having Meghan's dad John McCain as a guest as an example of having somebody on who he disagreed with politically. “If there was a difference in ideology, I would respect that person and there might be a tussle” but that it would ultimately be “collegial," he said. But of course, he added, that was “before Trump.” Letterman recalled loving having Trump on as a guest because “he could take a punch pretty good and I think he just liked being on TV and he was an excellent guest for somebody I could just beat up on." ALSO: Letterman joins Ellen DeGeneres in scaring her staff, before visiting with Clint Eastwood.