“There would be a backlash”: Harris reportedly skipped Rogan podcast over staff’s fears of reaction

An adviser to Doug Emhoff claimed Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris skipped an opportunity to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast over fears of a 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,” said Jennifer Palmieri, an adviser to Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff, per the Financial Times.

The host of “The Joe Rogan Experience” has shared several reasons why an interview with Harris never materialized. In the weeks before Election Day, he shared that he refused to do an on-site interview while Harris was campaigning. On Tuesday, Rogan said that Harris’ campaign put the kibosh on certain topics during a potential interview, which led him to decline. 

“They had, I don’t know how many conversations with my folks, but multiple conversations giving different dates, different times, different this, different that,” Rogan said. “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.” 

If true, the ban on legalization talk would be strange. Harris’ campaign pushed marijuana legalization as a plank of their campaign in its closing days.

Palmieri, for her part, said the will they-won’t they news cycle created a “weird dynamic” between the campaign and Rogan.

“All of a sudden he’s on his heels about how his audience is going to react to this, and the demands that they were going to put on him to be tough on her,” she shared while speaking at a conference organized by The Clearing House.

Donald Trump and JD Vance both appeared on Rogan’s podcast while on the campaign trail. Rogan officially endorsed Trump on the Monday before the election and has encouraged the president-elect to strive for unity over revenge in his second administration.