Joe Rogan's Unofficial Bernie Sanders Endorsement

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Part of a series on 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary. [View Related Entries]

The Onion @TheOnion Liberals Say Sanders's Acceptance Of Rogan Endorsement Sends Dangerous Message He Trying To Win Election trib.al/yQWwVkz 7:50 AM - Jan 25, 2020 · SocialFlow

ta You Retweeted wesinjapan @wesinjapan I can't stand Joe Rogan. I have also spent more time in combat sports gyms over the last decade than most any of you who are reading this and I can say- He is insanely influential amongst people who need to be pulled back from right-wing politics Right Now. 8:43 PM · Jan 23, 2020 - Twitter Web App 3K Retweets 34K Likes wesinjapan @wesinjapan - 18h Replying to @wesinjapan I think that Joe Rogan has been a gigantic negative on people- especially men- in my peer group. However- the mainstream Democrats that everyone accepts on TV all the time have views that are just as despicable and we allow them to have careers peddling war and austerity. O 33 O 5K 27 272 wesinjapan @wesinjapan - 16h Here is one thing I can tell you about a lot of the guys who listen to Rogan- They aren't right-wingers- they are alienated from politics. They are very much looking for people to explain their situation and the Left has not yet cultivated a means by which to do that broadly. O 40 O 6.1K 27 435 wesinjapan @wesinjapan - 16h I'm gonna let you finish- Rogan's audience is a lot more diverse in terms of race and sexuality then you would think. I know openly bi men who listen to his show and plenty of Latinx and African-Americans who do so to. They aren't Trump people, they just think politics are dumb. O 82 O 4.6K 27 189 wesinjapan @wesinjapan · 2h Man, if I would have known more than 5-10 people in New Orleans were going to read this, I would have written it better. Instead I went out drinking with the office staff from work. O 19 O 901

Ezra Klein @ezraklein Bernie's strength is that he can win over some voters who are skeptical of Democrats - like Joe Rogan. If you think getting Trump out of office is actually important, that's a good thing, and he should lean into it. 6:30 AM - 24 Jan 2020

Carlos Maza @gaywonk Bernie's campaign cutting a campaign ad with Joe Rogan f------ sucks. Rogan is an incredibly influential bigot and Democrats should be marginalizing him. 10:49 PM - Jan 23, 2020 - Twitter for iPhone

Emma Vigeland @EmmaVigeland If you're outraged that Sanders accepted an endorsement from Joe Rogan, who has massive reach with actual centrist/apolitical young people, you're part of why the left loses. We need to accept everyone who is open to a leftist message, no matter their past or how they got there. 10:44 AM - Jan 24, 2020 · Twitter Web App

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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.

“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

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.

Dear BernieSanders</a> Please reject the endorsement of this man. It is beneath all of us. It is not okay to be celebrating an endorsement from him. <a href="https://t.co/dciB61Oz4U">pic.twitter.com/dciB61Oz4U</a></p>— Jodi Optimism Bias Jacobson (jljacobson) January 24, 2020

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).

Watch Joe Rogan, who endorsed Bernie, compare Black People to "The Planet of the Apes."Bernie's campaign sure attracts Openly Racists jerks. pic.twitter.com/yX79yDKT7O
— ⚖️Bernie Sanders Will Never Be President ⚖️ (@KHiveQueenB) January 24, 2020

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).

Michelle Goldberg @michelleinbklyn Bernie is not my candidate but it seems obvious to me that he was right to take the Joe Rogan endorsement. One premise of his campaign is that he can win some number of alienated men with reactionary social views to the left, and this is proof of concept. 7:44 AM - Jan 24, 2020 · Twitter for iPhone

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.

A few of the celebrities who have endorsed Bernie Sanders for President in 2020 It's Free Real Estate Tim Heidecker Danny DeVito Mark Ruffalo TON Emily Ratajkowski Eric Andre John Mulaney NO STRAIG Killer Mike Joe Rogan Thomas Middleditch

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]