Liberal pundit Rachel Maddow made her first late-night show appearance since her MSNBC show was rolled back in May, discussing politics with NBC host Jimmy Fallon on Monday night.
Maddow appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" to promote her brand-new podcast "Ultra" and discuss the 2022 midterm elections. "The Rachel Maddow Show" is now a weekly show that airs only on Monday nights.
After briefly discussing her podcast, the conversation swiftly changed to politics.
"Can we just remind everyone why midterm elections are important?" Fallon asked Maddow.
"Every election is important, right? But this one is… this one feels like a very big deal," the "The Rachel Maddow Show" host began.
Maddow then talked about the "sort-of disastrous election of 2020" and cited a poll that said most Republican candidates did not accept the 2020 election results.
"So that's hard. Because if you don't believe elections are the way we decide who's in power, how exactly would you like us to choose you?" the commentator said while laughing.
But Maddow also acknowledged that it is historically more difficult for the incumbent party in power to be re-elected during midterms.
"To the extent that there is a political science rule in America, it is: If your party currently has a president in the White House, the next time there's an election, you're going to get shellacked. Like that's basically the rule," she said, before arguing that Republicans may still lose.
"We've got a Democrat, Joe Biden, in the White House. That means in political science terms that the Democrats should expect to not do well in these elections. But, Herschel Walker, you know," she said, referencing allegations that the Georgia Republican Senate candidate paid for his ex-girlfriend's abortion.
"Do you think Trump started a whole new type of world with these candidates?" Fallon asked, before Maddow referenced 2020 election denial as an important factor in upcoming elections.
"It's not a fringe thing. It's a majority of their candidates [that believe election fraud claims]. And so that's in part why this election is really important, because if one of the two major parties is going to go that direction where elections aren't how we determine the future of political power… well, there isn't really another good choice. So that makes this important," Maddow explained.
"This is not the election to sit out. It's four weeks from tomorrow. Whatever your political preferences are, this is going to be a really, really consequential one," the pundit concluded to Fallon.
The interview comes after Maddow's 9 p.m. timeslot was replaced by "Alex Wagner Tonight" Tuesdays through Fridays. The primetime program has struggled to keep up with Maddow's previous ratings.
