An appearance on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno’ quickly turned awkward for GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN). Leno thanked the Tea Party favorite for appearing, noting, “We’ve done a million jokes. Hopefully you haven’t been…watching any of them.”
Leno played it fairly straight for the rest of the interview, choosing to press the candidate on some of the recent issues for her campaign instead of going for laughs. After touching on her recent comments about HPV vaccinations the interview turned, well, awkward.
“That whole ‘pray the gay away’ thing, I don’t get it,” said Leno, in reference to the Christian counseling clinic operated by the candidate and her husband.
Bachmann vainly tried to deflect this question with a joke, pointing to her hair and saying, “When I heard that I really thought it was like kind of a mid-life crisis line, like, ‘Pray away the gray.'”
Crickets.
Bachmann tried to defend her clinic by sputtering a few lines about how its therapists “don’t discriminate.” The entire exchange was more uncomfortable than entertaining.
Leno pushed the line of questioning. “It sounds like, if two gay people want to get married, that’s their business, that doesn’t concern us. Why is that even an issue?”
“Well, because, the family is foundational,” said Bachmann. “Marriage between a man and a woman has been what the law has been for years and years and years.”
The only real moment of levity came when, discussing her apparent inability to compromise during the debt ceiling negotiations, Bachmann said “I’m convicted.”
Leno pounced. “No, you don’t get convicted until after you’re in office.”