Joe Rogan, the preeminent podcast host who played a pivotal role in the 2024 presidential election, is firing back hard against Kamala Harris's campaign for suggesting he refused to make interview time for them in the same manner he did for Donald Trump.
Harris's campaign has squabbled about the missed opportunity with Rogan since losing the election, with various sources suggesting it was either simply a scheduling conflict, an inability to agree on parameters, or progressive staffers on the then-vice president's campaign protesting the appearance.
Trump would go on to do the show for three hours, showing his engaging personality and ability to handle questions on the fly, while Kamala's appearance never materialized, solidifying her image of being out of touch and incapable of handling tough questioning.
Excerpts from a new book titled “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” detail how the negotiations fell through. Harris' campaign aides suggested Rogan's crew were deceitful and constantly rotating demands in trying to schedule the appearance.
Harris' staff reportedly arranged for her to be in a location close to Rogan's studio in Austin for October 25th, only to be informed by his people that he had blocked off a "personal day" at that time. It was the same day as his interview with Trump.
The Truth Behind Why Kamala Harris Refused to Do a Joe Rogan Interview Comes Out
Rogan contends none of this is accurate and that his staff had been more than accommodating and straightforward with Harris' people. As for not informing them about Trump's appearance, he believes it was not a requirement because she "hadn’t committed to doing the show.”
On Tuesday’s episode of his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," the titular host took a blowtorch to the accusations made in the book.
“This whole idea that we f**ked her over and we f**ked her over for Trump — incorrect, just not true,” Rogan said.
“One of the things they said that wasn’t true was that we lied about the day Trump was coming on," he added. "We just didn’t tell them because they hadn’t committed to doing the show.”
🚨BREAKING: Joe Rogan confirms that the Kamala Harris campaign LIED about Joe “not making time for Kamala.” He says that they refused to commit to a time, lied that he was unavailable, pretended they sent someone to view his set, and this lie was Kamala’s team covering their ass. pic.twitter.com/P8K9yBL6H4
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) February 4, 2025
Rogan also hammered back on assertions from Harris' people that he was the difficult one in trying to schedule, constantly changing parameters.
“Trump was super easy. We offered one day. He said, ‘Yes.’ That was it,” he fired back. “There was no back-and-forth, no stipulations, no edits — just a straightforward booking. Harris’ team, on the other hand, never fully committed.”
He also alleges that any suggestion that someone from the former vice president's team did a walkthrough of his studio is a lie because "these people didn’t have a date and "never agreed to do the show."
“There were some people on her staff who were against her doing it,” Rogan said. "They thought it was bad optics because they’re a bunch of wokesters.”
Which may have been the bottom line for Harris' refusal to get a date and time hammered down. Young progressive staffers working the campaign were reportedly throwing temper tantrums behind the scenes that she would even consider appearing with Rogan.
“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 Harris’ husband, told the Financial Times.
News of this prompted an all-time meltdown by Democrat strategist James Carville.
“The vice president was thinking about going on Joe Rogan’s show, and a lot of the younger progressive staffers pitched a hissy fit. Supposedly, the campaign said that that wasn’t a determinative factor, but they did," Carville insisted in a video discussing "How to Win the 2028 election."
"When you put a campaign together and you hire young people to do work, let me tell you exactly what you tell these people — what I would tell ’em,” he continued. “Not only am I not interested in your f**king opinion, I’m not even gonna call you by your name."
"You’re 23 years old. I don’t really give a s**t what you think.”
Dem strategist James Carville absolutely obliterates Kamala's progressive staffers who kept Harris from doing the @joerogan interview: I would tell them, "Not only am I not interested in your f**king opinion, I’m not even gonna call you by your name."
— Rusty (@Rusty_Weiss) November 26, 2024
"You’re 23 years old. I… pic.twitter.com/r3NpDVKyDq
Kamala's team, at least according to Rogan's version of events, also appears to be lying about their candidate's willingness to broach specific topics.
"Harris would be happy to talk about social media censorship, weed, and other issues they thought would be of most interest to his listeners," claimed multiple aides in the book.
Though they contend, "Joe just wants to talk about the economy, the border, and abortion."
Rogan wanting to steer clear of topics like freedom of speech and weed ... well, that doesn't sound like Joe. In fact, the podcast host, in an episode shortly after the election, accused the then-veep of wanting to avoid the topic of marijuana legalization at all costs.
“She didn’t want to talk about marijuana legalization, which I thought was hilarious,” he said. “Because of her prosecuting record,” Rogan explained. “She put a lot of people in jail for weed.”
🇺🇸JOE ROGAN: KAMALA’S PEOPLE ASKED US NOT TO DISCUSS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 13, 2024
“I’d ask questions, but I think they had requirements on topics she didn’t want to discuss, like marijuana legalization, which I thought was hilarious.
Because of her record as a prosecutor.
Yeah,… https://t.co/WNcxcBEdeD pic.twitter.com/bangKDKLde
There are, of course, many reasons Harris would likely have wanted to avoid discussions involving weed.
As California attorney general, Harris oversaw thousands of marijuana-related convictions. Critics argue that these convictions disproportionately affected black and brown communities and that Harris’ office fought against efforts to reduce sentences or expunge records.
Harris later came under additional fire for that prosecutorial record when she claimed she smoked weed in high school, with some branding her a hypocrite.
So, who is lying here?
Rogan ultimately states that his arguments about why the Harris campaign didn't get their candidate on his airwaves can be backed up with receipts.
“We have a whole list of conversations that took place,” he said. “I think someone is trying to cover their a** for the fact that she never did it.”
Whatever the ultimate reasoning, Trump did the interview with Rogan, whereas Kamala Harris did not. It drew nearly 50 million views on YouTube. In it, he showed his humor, his stamina, and his breadth of understanding of history and politics.
And he is now the President of the United States.
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