In the final weeks of the 2024 presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris had the opportunity to appear on Joe Rogan Experience, the nation’s most popular podcast. Ultimately, she declined the interview.

Former President Donald Trump certainly made the most of his three-hour conversation with Rogan. The video version has accumulated 38 million views on YouTube in just three days. Rogan ultimately endorsed Trump the day before the election.

It would be naive to think that Rogan — who has drifted to the right, despite supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2019 — could ever support Harris. And it’s likely that most of Rogan’s viewers, who skew young and male, would be more positively inclined toward Trump than toward Harris.

Even so, 40 million is a lot of viewers. If Harris could have made a positive impression among a small subset of Rogan’s fans, the interview would have been worth it. Plus, the interview would have helped counter the argument that she was stiff and impersonal – if, at least, she had done a good enough job. In other words, Harris had a lot to gain from a successful appearance.

It’s possible that Harris just wasn’t up to the three-hour conversation with Rogan. If she refused for this reason, then it was her choice; indeed, Rogan himself think she chose not to do the interview because her team disliked the time and lack of editing.

But a different explanation was given by Jennifer Palmieri, advisor to Doug Emhoff, the vice president’s husband. Palmieri said The Financial Times that Harris’ team ultimately turned down Rogan due to “concerns about how the interview would be perceived within the Democratic Party.”

“There was a backlash from some members of our progressive team who didn’t want her to be a part of it,” Palmieri said.

In fairness, this could be a convenient excuse: maybe Harris didn’t feel up to the interview and her team is making someone else the scapegoat.

But if true, it’s yet another eye-opening glimpse into how young, progressive staffers are ruining Democratic campaigns and undermining Democratic-aligned institutions in media, entertainment, education and elsewhere. Like independent journalist Zaid Jilani wrote on with Putin or Kim Jong Un if you can’t handle Joe Rogan and a 23-year-old employee.

Palmieri has walked back his assertionswriting on

“Regardless of any negative reaction, the campaign had decided to move forward with the interview and the Vice President was willing to do so,” she wrote.

Still, it’s telling that there has been relatively little speculation that Harris’ proximity to, say, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney would irritate progressive staffers. Is the Democratic Party tent big enough for Cheney but not Rogan?

I’m joined by Amber Duke to discuss Trump’s nomination of Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) for Secretary of State, media blaming Elon Musk and misinformation for causing Trump’s victory, gambling of reproaches from the Democratic Party and the question of whether the Department of Education can be abolished.

It’s been a while since a Marvel property has impressed me much – I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Agatha from the beginning—but I admit the latest trailer for Love at first sight it was pretty good.

“We are the THUNDERBOLTS*!”

Look at it #D23Brazil Special look from Marvel Studios #Love at first sight*in theaters May 2, 2025. pic.twitter.com/c0g2x5EdnI

-Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) November 9, 2024