By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 00:19:26 | Updated at 2024-11-22 11:51:25
1 week ago
She was afraid of stirring the progressive pot.
Joe Rogan claimed the Harris-Walz campaign drew a red line on talk about “marijuana legalization” for the interview that never happened — while aides said the sit-down was kiboshed over fears of progressive backlash.
“I think they had requirements on things that she didn’t want to talk about. She didn’t want to talk about marijuana legalization, which I thought was hilarious,” the popular podcaster revealed on his Tuesday episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
The Harris-Walz campaign had reached out to Rogan’s management about doing an interview with him after it broke that President-elect Donald Trump would go on the highly-rated podcast, according to Rogan, 57.
But ultimately, the scheduling never worked out, according to Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Ian Sams.
During the negotiations with Rogan, some staffers on Harris’ team grew wary that an appearance on Rogan’s heavily watched podcast could stoke progressive backlash.
“There was a backlash with some of our progressive staff that didn’t want her to be on it, and how there would be a backlash,” Jennifer Palmieri, an adviser to second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, told the Financial Times.
Rogan’s guest on the Tuesday episode, comedian Adrienne Iapalucci, pondered why the campaign would deem discussion about legalizing pot out of bounds.
“Because of her prosecuting record,” Rogan mused about Vice President Kamala Harris, who formerly served as California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney. “She put a lot of people in jail for weed.”
Last month, Harris’ team rolled out a suite of policies aimed at courting black male voters, including the legalization of marijuana.
She had taken flack from her left flank, including during the 2020 Democratic primary, for her prosecutorial record on marijuana.
Several prominent Democrats have pointed to Harris’ failure to sit down with Rogan as a contributing factor in her defeat on Nov. 5.
Trump’s wide-ranging, roughly three-hour-long interview with Rogan drew nearly 50 million views on YouTube. Rogan previously revealed that UFC CEO Dana White, a mutual friend of the pair, pushed for an interview between the podcast king and Trump, 78.
The Harris-Waltz campaign had made other demands, according to Rogan, including limiting the discussion to about an hour, far short of the typical three hours or more he typically does, and requesting accommodations that would ensure the veep didn’t have to trek to his studio in Austin, Texas.
He said the latter was a dealbreaker.
“They had, I don’t know how many conversations with my folks, but multiple conversations giving different dates, different times, different this, different that, and we knew that she was going to be in Texas, so I said, ‘open invitation,'” Rogan said.
Harris, 60, did briefly travel to Houston, Texas — about three hours east of Austin — on Oct. 25, during which she stumped with Beyonce and other stars.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recounted on CNN Sunday that he was “vilified by some of the Democratic establishment because I went on Rogan’s show” about four years ago.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast has long dominated the charts and the comedian is believed to have significant sway among young men, a bloc of voters that proved troublesome for Harris.
Rogan later endorsed Trump for the presidency. He had previously backed Sanders, 83, and described himself as a liberal, though over time he had grown disillusioned with California and Democrats’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In other podcast episodes, he mused that Harris’ reluctance to do a lengthy sitdown with him was a red flag and implied that she had been overly scripted throughout her 2024 campaign.
During the tail-end of her campaign, Harris did venture onto unfriendly territory and sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier for a roughly half-hour-long, combative interview last month.
The Post contacted a Harris rep for comment.
