Proving once again that he is truly his own man and marches to no set definition of partisanship or ideology, politically incorrect podcast host Joe Rogan threw his support behind socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for the 2020 presidential nomination, praising him for being “insanely consistent his entire life.”
“Him as a human being, when I was hanging out with him, I believe in him, I like him, I like him a lot,” Rogan told New York Times columnist Bari Weiss on his podcast Thursday, as reported by The Hill. “Look, you could dig up dirt on every single human being that’s ever existed if you catch them in their worst moment and you magnify those moments and you cut out everything else and you only display those moments.”
“That said, you can’t find very many with Bernie,” he continued. “He’s been insanely consistent his entire life. He’s basically been saying the same thing his whole life. And that in and of itself is very a powerful structure to operate from.”
In response, Bernie Sanders proudly shared the clip on social media, prompting backlash among his left-wing supporters who denounced Joe Rogan as a transphobe for having the temerity to oppose giving transgender children hormone treatment and for not uniformly denouncing all conservatives as irredeemable bigots unworthy of a platform. Some even wondered aloud if Bernie Sanders would accept an endorsement if it came from David Duke or Richard Spencer.
“I think I'll probably vote for Bernie… He’s been insanely consistent his entire life. He’s basically been saying the same thing, been for the same thing his whole life. And that in and of itself is a very powerful structure to operate from.” -Joe Rogan pic.twitter.com/fuQP0KwGGI
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 23, 2020
“Joe Rogan is a transphobic bigot who shills for quackery and cuddles up to dangerous racists. Appearing on his show is bad but understandable. Publicizing his endorsement is indefensible,” tweeted Mikey Franklin.
“Listen to me now, and I can’t believe I have to say it: No Dem needs Joe Rogan’s base to defeat Trump. We also don’t need to capitulate to homophobia and transphobia (which btw *kills* people *smacks forehead*) for any reason. This is foul, justifying stuff. No way around it,” tweeted Gaia Project CEO Elizabeth McLaughlin.
“Joe Rogan today, Richard Spencer tomorrow? David Duke? If we’re for throwing minorities under the bus to win over the white working class is that the next step. We’ve said for years the anti-identity politics, class over race argument would lead to this,” tweeted Marcus H. Johnson.
“Joe Rogan regularly gives a platform to hateful people like Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, James Damore and Steven Crowder. He mainstreams sexist, racist, homophobic and transphobic rhetoric + people. His endorsement of Bernie is an embarrassment, not a point of pride,” tweeted Ella Dawson. “Many of the people Joe Rogan has had on his show have launched violent harassment campaigns against women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. I’m one of them. I wrote about my experience as a target back in 2016, when they were attacking Clinton.”
“Bernie’s campaign cutting a campaign ad with Joe Rogan f***ing sucks. Rogan is an incredibly influential bigot and Democrats should be marginalizing him,” tweeted Carlos Maza.
“This isn’t about ‘disagreements’ or overpolicing someone’s politics. Rogan has been routinely misogynist and transphobic on his program, and it isn’t out of bounds to say that it is odd (or bad) for a guy pursuing the Democratic nomination to embrace that person’s endorsement,” tweeted Jamil Smith.
As noted by Tiana Lowe of the Washington Examiner, progressive outrage over Bernie Sanders accepting Joe Rogan’s support is nothing if not hypocritical, given that Sanders has surrounded his campaign with anti-Semitic figures such as Linda Sarsour.