Why Kamala Harris Bailed on Joe Rogan
"The campaign had made decision to pursue the interview and the Vice President was prepared to do it," says one staffer.
In the closing weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris had an opportunity to appear on the Joe Rogan Experience, the most popular podcast in the country. Ultimately, she declined the interview.
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Former President Donald Trump certainly made the most of his three-hour conversation with Rogan. The video version racked up 38 million views on YouTube in just three days. Rogan ultimately endorsed Trump the night before the election.
It would be naïve to think that Rogan—who has drifted toward the right, despite his support for Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2019—was ever going to endorse Harris. And it's probably the case that most of Rogan's viewers, who skew younger and male, would be more positively inclined toward Trump than Harris.
Even so, 40 million is a lot of viewers. If Harris could have made a positive impression among some small subset of those Rogan fans, the interview would have been worth doing. Moreover, the interview would have helped her counter the argument that she is stiff and impersonal—if, that is, she did a good enough job. In other words, Harris had much to gain from a successful appearance.
It's possible that Harris just wasn't up to the task of making conversation with Rogan for three hours. If she declined for that reason, then that was her choice; indeed, Rogan himself thinks she opted not to do the interview because her team disliked the time commitment and the lack of editing.
But a different explanation was given by Jennifer Palmieri, an advisor to Doug Emhoff, the vice president's husband. Palmieri told The Financial Times that Harris' team ultimately turned down Rogan because of "concerns at how the interview would be perceived within the Democratic Party."
"There was a backlash with some of our progressive staff that didn't want her to be on it," said Palmieri.
In fairness, that could be a convenient excuse: Maybe Harris didn't feel up to the interview, and her team is scapegoating someone else.
But if true, it's yet another revealing glimpse at how young, progressive staffers are ruining Democratic campaigns and tanking Democratic-aligned institutions in the media, entertainment, education, and elsewhere. As independent journalist Zaid Jilani wrote on X: "The news that Kamala Harris ditched Rogan because she was scared of progressive backlash just confirms my thesis that she was not ready for prime time. You can't negotiate with Putin or Kim Jong Un if you can't handle Joe Rogan and a 23 year old staffer."
Palmieri has walked back her claims, writing on X that scheduling issues rather than progressive staffers' frustrations was the primary reason the interview did not take place.
"Regardless of any blowback, the campaign had made decision to pursue the interview and the Vice President was prepared to do it," she wrote.
Still, it's telling that there was comparatively little speculation that Harris' proximity to, say, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney would irk progressive staffers. Is the Democratic Party tent big enough for Cheney but not for Rogan?
This Week on Free Media
I am joined by Amber Duke to discuss Trump nominating Sen. Marco Rubio (R–Fla.) to be secretary of state, the media blaming Elon Musk and misinformation for causing Trump's victory, the Democratic Party's blame game, and whether the Education Department can be abolished.
Worth Watching
It's been a while since a Marvel property impressed me much—I haven't yet had time for Agatha All Along—but I admit the latest trailer for Thunderbolts was pretty good.
"We are the THUNDERBOLTS*!"
Watch the #D23Brasil Special Look of Marvel Studios' #Thunderbolts* in theaters May 2, 2025. pic.twitter.com/c0g2x5EdnI
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) November 9, 2024
