--- title: Jimmy Fallon Wears a Mask to Welcome Hillary Clinton description: Hillary Clinton's recent bout of pneumonia became the obvious punchline for Jimmy Fallon on the 'Tonight Show' on Monday canonical: https://time.com/4500872/jimmy-fallon-hillary-clinton-tonight-show/ author: Kevin Lui article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-20T09:04:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:36.086Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jimmy Fallon Wears a Surgical Mask to Welcome Hillary Clinton og:description: He also gave her an actual bag of softballs og:url: https://time.com/4500872/jimmy-fallon-hillary-clinton-tonight-show/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jimmy Fallon Wears a Surgical Mask to Welcome Hillary Clinton twitter:description: He also gave her an actual bag of softballs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Jimmy Fallon Breaks Out His Surgical Mask for Hillary Clinton's _Tonight Show_ Appearance > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Sep 20, 2016 9:04 AM UTC by [Kevin Lui](https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/) ## Kevin Lui Sep 20, 2016 9:04 AM UTC Hillary Clinton’s recent [bout of pneumonia](http://time.com/4487345/hillary-clinton-pneumonia/) became the obvious punchline for Jimmy Fallon when the Democratic presidential nominee was guest on the _Tonight Show_ Monday night. Fallon donned a surgical mask and made ample use of the hand sanitizer when he welcomed Clinton to the show. She took it in her stride and laughed the health references off. “I’m not contagious,” Clinton said. “I’m used to just getting up and powering through it, and that’s what I thought I could do. Turns out I couldn’t.” Fallon asked her whether she dreamed of being President in her childhood. “It wasn’t even within the realm of the possible for little girls back then,” she told the host. “That’s what’s so exciting about this campaign.” “We have slowly but steadily knocked down all the barriers,” Clinton said. The pair also talked about the upcoming first presidential debate and her rival Donald Trump’s behavior on the campaign trail. Fallon gave Clinton a paper bag that he said was left by Trump when he appeared on the program last Thursday, [reports PEOPLE](http://www.people.com/article/jimmy-fallon-gives-hillary-clinton-bag-of-softballs-after-criticism-donald-trump-interview) It contained a framed photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a CD of Pink Floyd’s _The Wall_ and a bag of softballs. (Fallon’s most [recent interview](http://time.com/4496425/donald-trump-hair-jimmy-fallon-tonight-show/) with Trump was widely panned for being too soft with the questioning.) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4500872/jimmy-fallon-hillary-clinton-tonight-show/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4500872/jimmy-fallon-hillary-clinton-tonight-show/"},"headline":"Jimmy Fallon Breaks Out His Surgical Mask for Hillary Clinton's Tonight Show Appearance","datePublished":"2016-09-20T09:04:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:36.086Z","description":"He also gave her an actual bag of softballs","url":"https://time.com/4500872/jimmy-fallon-hillary-clinton-tonight-show/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin Lui","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kevin-lui/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4500872/jimmy-fallon-hillary-clinton-tonight-show/","name":"Jimmy Fallon Breaks Out His Surgical Mask for Hillary Clinton's Tonight Show Appearance"}}]}] ```