While some late night hosts have gotten face time with President Biden over the past few months, Jay Leno has landed an interview with the president’s car.
Jay Leno’s Garage, the YouTube automotive series in which the famed comedian and car enthusiast profiles various automobiles and motorcycles, devoted an entire episode to the United States presidential state car, more commonly known as “The Beast.”
Leno welcomed United States Secret Service members Steve Abel and Jay Nasworthy, who gave him a (mostly verbal and somewhat vague) tour of the presidential limousine.
While Leno led the interview alongside the massive vehicle, the top-secret nature of the car’s capabilities restricted the camera crew from filming anything inside The Beast. “Obviously there are a lot of things they can’t tell you about it,” he said of the GM-made vehicle, which is “built to resemble a Cadillac.”
While Leno mentioned getting a peek of the interior before the cameras were rolling, the video itself only details certain angles of the car’s exterior. “We can’t open the doors for obvious reasons,” he told viewers. “We can’t show the inside.”
Even conversationally, there was a lot the Secret Service members were not able to disclose.
“The wheel covers just look sort of like standard Cadillac wheel covers, but I’m sure there’s something very special about them, too,” Leno prodded, “and we can’t discuss that either?”
“Not really,” Abel replied.
In what was mostly an unusually muted interview for Leno—even on Jay Leno’s Garage—the host opened the interview with a sense of seriousness and respect.
“Welcome to a very special edition of Jay Leno’s Garage,” he began, donning a formal black suit that contrasted his usual denim garage attire. “I’m dressed this way because today we’re featuring the most important, probably most valuable car we have ever done in the whole 14 years of doing this program.”
“These guys are dead serious. You can’t even joke around here,” Leno mused as he welcomed his guests.
Still, Leno made a point to note that the video should not be seen as an endorsement of any candidate. “This is not about politics,” he said at the top of the episode. “This is not about Trump or Biden or Democrats or Republicans. It’s about the President of the United States.”
Jay Leno’s Garage began as a web series on NBC.com in 2013, when he was still hosting The Tonight Show.
From 2014 to 2023, it aired as an hour-long show on CNBC. Since then, the show has released new episodes on YouTube, where it currently boasts around 3.65 million subscribers.
