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‘Off-the-charts arrogance’: Joe Rogan pummeled for Harris campaign comment

Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver her "Closing Argument" speech Tuesday evening at the Ellipse—the same Washington, D.C. park where Donald Trump held his "Save America" rally telling supporters to march to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, ahead of the insurrection.

Before her 7:30 PM ET event, the Vice President will be giving five interviews, according to campaign spokesperson Ian Sams: "Battleground TV interviews in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh + Spanish radio in Pennsylvania to reach Latinos, including Puerto Ricans."

Not included in her interviews Tuesday is podcaster Joe Rogan, with whom the campaign has been in talks.

Overnight, Rogan explained on social media that those talks are ongoing, despite there being just one week until Election Day.

Just before that, Rogan had posted his three-hour interview with Donald Trump, which aired Friday, to Elon Musk's social media site X. He then shared this statement:

"Also, for the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin. My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen."

Some political experts say an interview with Rogan, the nation's top podcaster whose largely male audience (he reportedly has 14 million followers on Spotify, and 18 million on YouTube), could help Harris, who is hoping to get more male voters to cast their ballot for her. But a former Harris campaign senior advisor offered this:

"Hot take—Rogan needs the Harris interview more than @KamalaHQ does. The exposure with a new audience who is deeply skeptical of him after years of out of context clips would be huge. He could pull in a lot of new people who have never listened to a full episode before, and even if he retained a fraction of that audience it would move him more into the mainstream."

Some critics are blasting Rogan.

"Is this a podcast host saying he's unwilling to travel to interview the sitting vice president for an hour?" asked Zeteo News media columnist Justin Baragona.

"I think Joe Rogan is afraid to interview Kamala Harris because that would require a great deal of research and preparation that he is not equipped to do," responded award-winning investigative journalist Lisa Guerrero.

"Come on @joerogan. It’s the last week of the campaign! She’s a little busier than you. Get on a (private) plane and do the interview, even if just for an hour. Americans want to hear it," exclaimed professor of political science and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul.

"If I could have interviewed the a person who is potentially the future president, I would have canceled everything in my calendar. Unless you were burying a close friend or relative, you weren't committed to the interview," remarked professor of law Darren Hutchinson.

"Demanding a VP come to you in final week of campaign sort of says it all," commented The Lincoln Project's Stuart Stevens, a top Republican political strategist, appearing to suggest Rogan has a "feeling of self-importance and omnipotence."

"So the sitting Vice President and likely the next President of the United States should fly over to see you? Respect for the office of VP as well as the fact that she has a competitive race to run, suggests you get your ass on a plane and talk to her wherever [she] is," commented Alexander Vindman, the former Director for European Affairs for the U.S. National Security Council (NSC).

"Just off-the-charts arrogance," remarked investigative journalist and founder of Popular Information Judd Legum.