Politics

Why You're Seeing Angry Tweets About Jimmy Fallon Today

September 16th 2016

You're likely seeing a lot of angry tweets on your timeline directed at Jimmy Fallon, host of "The Tonight Show," and you may be wondering why. Fallon is harmless, right?

Because Trump, it's Trump.

Fallon had Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as a guest on his show on Thursday and handled Trump with kid gloves, like referring to Trump's questionable relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "bromance," and tousling his hair.

With any other candidate, this wouldn't be an issue. After all, "The Tonight Show" isn't a town hall or presidential debate, and Jimmy Fallon isn't held to the same standards as Matt Lauer, right? So why is everyone so upset?

"Shit like this is normalizing racism."

Trump has a history of saying and doing racist things, like retweeting a racist Twitter account, endorsing his supporters' decision to beat a Black Lives Matter protestor, making blatantly racist comments against Mexican-American Judge Gonzalo Curiel, validating his followers' hateful comments about Muslims, allegedly refusing to rent to black people in the 1970s, and claming that Mexican immigrants are rapists.

So when Fallon ignores all of those serious issues and instead giggles about how funny "Vlump" is (his "celebrity couple name" for Trump and Vladminir Putin) people get upset, because they feel it's like Fallon is validating all of Trump's bigotry.

Some of the tweets are brutal:

Not every talk show host bows to Trump.

As Jezebel pointed out, former "Late Show" host David Letterman held nothing back when he told his TV audience "Trump is a racist."

He also had no problem grilling Trump about where his clothing line was made — and when Trump wouldn't answer, Letterman held up the shirts, and read out loud the "made in China" label.

Late night shows are where candidates go to get a free pass.

Last month, Trump supporters had their fair share of criticism for Jimmy Kimmel, who poked fun at conspiracy theories surrounding Hillary Clinton's health by having the candidate open a pickle jar on his show to demonstrate her strength and vitality.

But the intensity and volume of criticism aimed at Trump's appearance on the Tonight Show demonstrates how divisive the candidate really is.

You can watch Jimmy Fallon pal around with Donald Trump below.

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