Vice President Kamala Harris turned down a Joe Rogan podcast interview over fear of backlash from the progressive wing of her party, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
“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, a senior adviser to Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff.
Palmieri’s comments come as many Democrats, reeling from President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory, argue Harris’s choice to skip the interview cost her crucial support, particularly among young men, and see it as a pivotal error in her campaign, the Financial Times reported.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), who described Harris’s campaign as “disastrous,” said Democrats need to start embracing “alternative media” like Rogan’s podcast, the number-one show in the world.
“I think we’ve got to get—and clearly, you have an alternative media out there, a lot of podcasts that millions and millions of viewers—get on the show,” he told CNN on Sunday.
Trump’s three-hour appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience amassed over 49 million views on YouTube, and Rogan’s interview with Vice President-elect JD Vance had 16 million views. Harris’s eight-minute discussion with the Call Her Daddy podcast—which cost the candidate six figures—had less than one million views.
Palmieri also said that the rumor about Harris potentially being on Rogan’s show created a “very weird dynamic” between the podcaster and the campaign.
