Jay Leno is responding to Monica Lewinsky’s claims that he went especially hard on her after her affair with Bill Clinton hit the headlines in the '90s.

Sources close to Jay tell TMZ he didn’t target Monica personally back then -- he says she was just an easy punchline and fair game, since she was everywhere in the news at the time.

Addressing Monica's claims from Tuesday's "Call Her Daddy" interview with Alex Cooper, sources say Jay wouldn’t call it unfair -- she was often the butt of the jokes, but no one was out to get her personally. It's just that, in comedy, sometimes people get hurt.

They also point out that making jokes about her was a part of the late-night host rivalry -- every male host was doing it.

That said, our source tells us Jay couldn't apologize or be sincere about it because, well, that was the news at the time -- and that's what they did in the late-night game.

We're told Jay gets why Monica’s upset, but reminded us we live in a different time now, and he hasn't mentioned her name in 30 years -- and it’s not something he'd joke about today.