Joe Rogan claimed that Democrats are scrambling to create a liberal version of his hit podcast show following Donald Trump’s 2024 election win.
Kamala Harris was invited to appear on The Joe Rogan Experience, but her campaign was unable to agree on certain terms, such as location and length, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Harris campaign aides recently told podcast Pod Save America that she couldn’t take the time away from battleground states. Rogan did sit down for lengthy conversations with vice president-elect JD Vance, Elon Musk as well as Trump , and also endorsed the Republican on election day.
Despite this, Rogan claimed that we was on the Democrats side at one point, according to Huffington Post.
“I think these ‘Call Her Daddy’ [podcast] shows and all these different shows that [Harris] went on, I mean, I’m sure they had an impact,” he said on a recent episode. “But I think that in the future, I’m sure they’re scrambling to try to create their own version of this show. This is one thing that keeps coming up, like, ‘We need our own Joe Rogan.’”
"But they had me," he added. "I was on their side."
His guest on the episode, software designer Marc Andreessen agreed with Rogan, saying that the Democrats "drove [Rogan] away."
"But they also have, you know, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN. Right?" Andreessen asked, repeating the oft-touted line most TV news outfits back the Democrats, with the exception being the Republican-aligned Fox News.
Rogan dismissed traditional media for podcasting — itself already a two-decade old medium — saying broadcast news "doesn't work anymore."
"It's like, you know, like you're using smoke signals, and everybody else has a cell phone," Rogan said. "It's just, it's a bizarre time."
While Rogan's media critiques may or may not have merit, he's not wrong to say that he at one time did legitimately back the Democrats. During the lead up to the 2020 presidential election, Rogan backed Senator Bernie Sanders not just to win the nomination, but to take the presidency.
Earlier this year, he admitted that he "could see" Vice President Kamala Harris beating Trump in November.
As of Thanksgiving, Rogan's Trump episode has 52 million views on YouTube. He also has 14.5 millions followers on Spotify, by far the most on the platform, according to Business Insider.
Harris's episode of Call Her Daddy has just over 900,000 views on YouTube.
During the initial flurry of calls for a left-wing Rogan, some commenters online — and now CNN — floated Twitch streamer Hasan Piker's name as a possible candidate.
Piker is the platform's most subscribed political streamer, but he's no Democrat. He is a leftist who supports progressive policies and politicians and is an advocate for workers’ rights and an end to the war in Gaza.
He told CNN's Donnie O'Sullivan that he has no interest of playing the part of a liberal Rogan, and does not believe the Democratic Party "can podcast itself out of this issue."
"Joe Rogan, he endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2020. Maybe [the Democrats] should do an autopsy on why he left the party," Piker said.
When asked what the Democrats needed to change to win back voters, Piker gave a simple, direct answer.
“Their policies,” he said.
