Someone Please Investigate Why Ukraine’s President Loves Jay Leno

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Hey, here’s something weird: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky supposedly considers former Tonight Show host Jay Leno a “hero.” This is according to the testimony of the ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland. Before we get into the whole thing, let’s point out that: 1) Zelensky was a comedian before he ran for president, 2) No one for whom Jay Leno is a hero has any business being a country’s president, let alone a comedian.

All right, here’s the supposed story, per the Washington Post. In an attempt to curry favor with Zelensky after his election, Sondland invited along his “personal friend” Leno to perform at a celebration in Brussels. The paper reported that Leno’s “US-focused patter fell flat on the ears of European officials.” Here’s how Sondland put it:

Mother Jones reached out to Jay Leno’s publicist for comment.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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