Joe Rogan's Unofficial Bernie Sanders Endorsement

Overview

Joe Rogan's Unofficial Bernie Sanders Endorsement refers to an online controversy that arose in late January 2020 after Joe Rogan claimed he would "probably" vote for Bernie Sanders in the upcoming Democratic presidential primary election.

Background

On January 20th, 2020, Rogan interviewed New York Times staff editor Bari Weiss during episode #1415 of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. During the interview, Rogan revealed that he would "probably" vote for Sanders in the Democratic primary.

“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.”

On January 23rd, the official @BernieSanders Twitter feed posted a short video featuring a clip of Rogan praising Sanders during the podcast, along with the quote in which he claimed we would vote for Sanders based on his consistency.

Developments

On Twitter

On January 23rd, Twitter user @jljacobson posted a screenshot of a Facebook post attributed to Rogan, along with a call for Sanders to reject Rogan's endorsement (shown below). Over the next 24 hours, the tweet received upwards of 1,300 likes and 250 retweets.

Meanwhile, former Vox host Carlos Maza posted a tweet^[6] denouncing the campaign ad, referring to Rogan as "an incredibly influential bigot" (shown below). Within one day, the tweet gained over 11,000 likes and 1,500 retweets.

That same evening, Twitter user @KHiveQueenB posted a clip from the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in which Rogan says "we walked into Planet of the Apes" when discussing seeing a film in a theater where "there was no white people" (shown below).

Others defended Sanders welcoming the unofficial endorsement. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg tweeted^[5] that while Sanders was not her candidate, she believed "he was right to take the Joe Rogan endorsement" in order to win over "alienated men" (shown below, left). Meanwhile, The Young Turks correspondent Emma Vigeland tweeted^[4] that those who were "outraged that Sanders accepted an endorsement from Joe Rogan" were "part of why the left loses" (shown below, right).

On January 24th, Vox founder Ezra Klein tweeted^[7] that those who want to remove Trump from office should lean into endorsements from people like Joe Rogan (shown below). That day, a Twitter Events^[1] page was created titled "Joe Rogan says he'll 'probably' vote for Bernie Sanders," which collected tweets discussing the unofficial endorsement. That day, "Joe Rogan" became the #1 trending topic in the United States on the platform.

On Reddit

On January 23rd, 2020, Redditor AUSinUSA submitted an image of celebrities who had praised Sanders or endorsed him for president (shown below). Within 24 hours, the post received more than 1,900 points (98% upvoted) and 250 comments on the /r/SandersForPresident^[3] subreddit.

The following day, Redditor guccibananabricks submitted a screenshot of tweets calling for Sanders to reject Rogan's endorsement titled "Rogan endorsed Sanders. Now Twitter Radlibs are trying to cancel him for being a 'Nazi'" (shown below). Within 13 hours, the post garnered more than 550 points (97% upvoted) and 350 comments on /r/stupidpol.^[2]

Search Interest

External References