Joe Rogan has been criticized for his handling of a potential podcast interview with Kamala Harris prior to the US election, as it's revealed that the comedian snubbed Harris at the last minute in favor of an interview with Donald Trump.
Podcasts have become one of the leading media formats in the 2020s, with many of the biggest celebrities in the world either appearing on them or hosting their own.
So-called king of the format is comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan, who has amassed an audience that's almost three times larger than any of his competitors after 15 years and over 2,000 episodes.
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Rogan has had a wide variety of guests on the show including Elon Musk, Mike Tyson, and even Edward Snowden, and his episode with Republican candidate and current US President Donald Trump is considered to be one of the reasons why the 45th president was successful once again.
On top of this, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris' failure to attend an interview with Rogan - allegedly due to her inability to travel to Rogan's Austin studio and discuss topics including marijuana - has been seen as a major failure on her part, but recent reports from the forthcoming book 'FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House' indicate differently.
As per NBC News, there was an initial struggle for Harris' team, chiefly her deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty, to meet a middle ground with Rogan and his representatives.
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She was willing to agree to the rather strict conditions, including "no staff in the studio, no topic restrictions," and the signing of a waiver, but the notion that Harris would have to attend Rogan's studio in Austin was initially proving to be a challenge.
Nearing the election her team was struggling to find the time or the reason to divert their campaign trail away from battleground states and towards an area they were almost guaranteed to lose, but they had managed to engineer a rally in Houston on the basis of abortion rights.
It was advised that attending an interview with Rogan on his podcast would not only put Kamala out of her comfort zone - something she had been accused of shying away from - but would also appeal her to younger male demographics, which she was lacking support in compared to Trump.
Just before the Houston rally was officially set, Flaherty contacted Rogan's representatives to arrange the interview, indicating October 25 as a potential date.
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To their shock, Rogan's team returned to reveal that he'd blocked that date out "as a personal day," and instead could only do the morning after before 8:30am.
This was far from the last of the shocks though, as just a few days after that conversation it was revealed that Donald Trump - who Rogan had previously fallen out with - was set to be a guest on his show, and it would all be happening on the previously anointed 'personal day'.
Understandably Harris and her team pulled out of the interview, opting instead to bring Beyoncé out at the Houston rally - but that also wouldn't be without complications too, and many perceived that the situation had resulted in a 'losing hand', as Rogan's interview with Trump went viral, amassing over 55,000,000 views.
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Social media has expressed their own frustrations at Rogan after this information was revealed, especially as the podcast host had lied regarding Harris' supposed 'unwillingness' to attend his podcast.
"So Rogan totally ratf***** Harris," declared one user on X, although others have argued that Kamala "would've lost harder had she done the show," indicating that Rogan "did her a favor."
Whether attending Rogan's podcast would have helped or hindered isn't really the focus at this point though, but instead the fact that Rogan's decision to opt for Trump - especially by the means of deceiving Harris and her team - definitely played an impact in the election results.