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Comedian and actor Zach Galifianakis revealed that he nearly scrapped his 2016 interview with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was running for president at the time against Donald Trump, because her team tried to tell the comedian he couldn’t bring up her email controversy.
Galifianakis spoke with comedian Conan O’Brien on his show, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” during which they both argued that comedy has to come first in interviews with politicians, including sitting presidents. Galifianakis said some podcasters have the president on now just to “suck up to him,” and said it was their job to make their subjects uncomfortable.
“I’m more interested in the comedy first, and whatever their motive is, fine,” Galifianakis said. “But the comedy has to come first. I remember when I interviewed Hillary Clinton and I could tell she didn’t want to be there. And I totally get that. I get it.”
“But before we had set that whole thing up, they wrote back, ‘Well, you can’t bring up those emails,'” he continued. “And I go, ‘Well, we don’t have to do the interview … That’s fine. We won’t do it.'”
LIBERAL COMIC WHO HELPED POPULARIZE PODCASTING EXPLAINS WHY HE TURNED DOWN HILLARY CLINTON INTERVIEW
Zach Galifianakis spoke about his Hillary Clinton interview from 2016 during a conversation with Conan O’Brien on May 4, 2026. (Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images; Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
The comedian said that Clinton’s team then told him they would do the interview without the precondition.
“When you tell powerful people, no, it’s crazy,” Galifianakis said. “They were like, ‘OK, we’ll do it.’ Well, you can ask, because it’s not that important to me to do it the way they want to do it. You have to, if you’re going to come in a comedy, you got to, the way we want to do it,” Galifianakis said.
Clinton’s team did not immediately return a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Galifianakis sat down with Clinton on his show “Between Two Ferns” in September 2016. He also did a show with former President Barack Obama.
KIMMEL CALLS MELANIA TRUMP AN ‘EXPECTANT WIDOW’ BEFORE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER SHOOTING
Hillary Clinton speaks to members of the media outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg)
The comedian said in 2016 that he wouldn’t have Trump on the show shortly after his Clinton interview, saying at the time, “I wouldn’t have somebody on that’s so mentally challenged.”
“I feel like I’d be taking advantage of him. And you can print that,” he added.
O’Brien and Galifianakis both argued that Trump would do well to let himself be “the butt of the joke.”
“And our current president would do well to understand that if he let himself be the butt of the joke,” O’Brien said, as Galifianakis added, “It’s humanizing.”
“You wouldn’t do it with him. It wouldn’t work,” Galifianakis said of Trump.
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President Trump raises a fist as he departs Doral, Florida en route to his Palm Beach mansion on May 2, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)
Trump has been critical of late-night comedians in his second term, including most recently Jimmy Kimmel.
The liberal comedian joked that first lady Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow” during a parody version of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, just days before a shooting at the actual event.
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Trump and the first lady called for Kimmel’s firing.
