Kamala Harris says she feels “regret” about not appearing on Joe Rogan‘s podcast during her campaign for president. During an interview on Diary of a CEO, Harris explained that despite several reports to the contrary she wanted to do the conservative podcast.
“I wanted to do Joe Rogan’s show, and there was a lot of games being played, but I wanted to do Joe Rogan’s show,” Harris told host Steven Bartlett. “I think podcasting is a very powerful medium for people to get information, and to your point, for a lot of people that is a main source of information and it’s important for us to support that.”
There has been conflicting information about why Harris ended up not being interviewed by Rogan on his popular The Joe Rogan Experience. In the book Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes wrote that Rogan promised Harris an appearance but gave it to Donald Trump instead. Rogan responded that Harris and her team never agreed to an appearance and wanted him to travel to D.C. so she wouldn’t have to go to Austin, where he records.
On Diary of a CEO, Harris confirmed she wanted to do the show. There were people in her camp, however, who advised against it because it wouldn’t be a “productive piece” for her.
“They assumed, as it turned out to be correct, that he was supporting Trump and that it would not be a productive piece for me,” she said. “But just like when I went on Fox News with Bret Baier, my perspective was they may have their bias, but there are people that listen who are open-minded, and I’m going to go there and give them a chance to get to know me and give me a chance to make my case to them. So, that was my perspective on Joe Rogan, just like it was my perspective on Fox.”
She added, “There was a lot of games being played around the scheduling and it didn’t happen. I don’t have anything against the people who turn on to Joe Rogan, and would love to be able to talk with him in a direct manner as I wanted to during the campaign.”
Bartlett asked Harris if she thinks in retrospect that she should have pushed for the opportunity to do the podcast. She said she didn’t know if it would have impacted the result of the election overall. “The issue was really about what’s the trade-off in terms of votes and where I spend my time,” Harris said. “Do I spend my time traveling for five hours and back versus being, for that period of time, in a swing state? And that was the trade-off.”
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Harris is currently promoting her memoir, 107 Days, which chronicles her campaign and the election. Last month, during an appearance on The View, she acknowledged that mistakes were made in that campaign. “I didn’t fully appreciate how much people wanted to know there was a difference between me and President Biden,” she said.
Harris also battled through an uncomfortable interview with ABC’s Sarah Ferguson this week. Watch here.
From Rolling Stone US
