Comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan pushed back against recent accusations he was uncooperative in setting up an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris, insisting there were “a bunch of different things that weren’t true.”
A recently released excerpt from the upcoming book FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House featured discussion of about 150 people who writers “supposedly” interviewed about Rogan’s interview with the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate that failed to materialize. However, Rogan noted the authors “didn’t talk to us,” and also made several false statements, including claiming that Rogan’s crew “lied” about when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump would be interviewed.
“No, we just didn’t tell you that Trump was coming on; he was already booked a long time ago,” Rogan said in a new episode of The Joe Rogan Experience. “This is how it worked: Trump was really easy to book, like super easy. We offered one day, he said yes, that was it. There was no, ‘What are we going to talk about? How long is it going to be? Is it going to be edited?’ There was nothing! ‘What’s the waiver? Here, give me that waiver, sign it.’ It was so easy. So, he was already booked, they never committed to doing the show.”
Rogan also detailed how his original intent was to release his interviews of Trump and Harris on the same day but was insistent that both interviews be held in his studio in Texas. He even offered to do the Harris interview on the same night he talked to Trump, but nothing ever happened.
The podcast host’s argument to conduct the interview in his studio stemmed from Harris’s interview with Fox News’s host Bret Baier that was cut after just 20 minutes. Rogan added that he needed “more time” to fully get to know Harris and have “a real conversation,” as the podcast host is known for talking to his guests for multiple hours on his show.
Rogan explained he also explored Harris coming on his show on Oct. 26, the day after he interviewed Trump. Rogan said he was willing to do this so long as it started by 8:30 a.m., as he was doing another podcast for the UFC.
“So this idea that I sabotaged her, as a bunch of people say ‘I f***ed her over’ or whatever, that’s not true,” Rogan said.
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While an interview with Harris ultimately never happened ahead of Election Day, Trump’s interview on The Joe Rogan Experience became widely popular, becoming one of the podcast’s most popular episodes with over 55 million views on YouTube. Trump made numerous podcast appearances ahead of the 2024 election, which has likely paved the way for future presidential candidates to make use of podcast interviews in future elections.
Rogan was one of several celebrities who attended Trump’s inauguration last month, which also had fellow comedian and podcast host Theo Von in attendance. Trump also went on Von’s podcast in August, which garnered 16 million views on YouTube.