Comedian Dave Smith told Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson on Monday that former Vice President Kamala Harris not going on popular podcaster Joe Rogan’s show was the “right move” for her campaign due to being unable to risk being “exposed.”
Despite an extended “open invitation” to the former vice president during her 2024 presidential campaign in October, the Harris campaign missed their opportunity with Rogan due to a “scheduling” conflict at the time. While discussing the landscape of new media and how it’s changed politics on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” Carlson asked Smith how long he believes the movement could last.
“That’s a good question. It’s very hard. It’s very hard to make predictions because it’s such a new model,” Smith said. “We really don’t know much about this. One of the things that I find that — which, you never want to get ahead of yourself, especially these days. There’s so many things that could happen that it’s kind of impossible to even know what 2028 looks like, but I’m assuming right now JD Vance is probably going to be the guy.”
“You look at Kamala Harris’ campaign and see Joe Biden the same way. And Joe Biden, specifically, because he was senile. Joe Biden, younger Joe Biden, while he was never a very bright guy, maybe would have been a little bit different politically, but Kamala Harris. So she kind of famously, infamously now, turned down the Joe Rogan experience. She could have been on the show, but she didn’t.”
Former President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential campaign in July and endorsed Harris. The former vice president appeared to avoid in-depth interviews about the policies she began campaigning on as she had flip-flopped on many that she advocated for prior to 2020.
President Donald Trump, however, broke into the new media landscape sitting with various podcasters like comedian Theo Von, wrestler Mark Calaway and comedian Andrew Schultz. In one of his last episodes with podcasters, Trump joined Rogan for a three-hour unscripted interview, racking up millions of views. (RELATED: Jasmine Crockett Tells Chuck Todd Why She Thinks Kamala Harris Struggled With Black Men)
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“So she kind of famously, infamously now, turned down the Joe Rogan experience. She could have been on the show, but she didn’t. Now, a lot of people were saying, ‘Oh, what a stupid move, turning that down,’” Smith said. “I kind of disagree. I go, that probably was the right move. If you had no soul and you’re working for the Kamala Harris campaign and your only objective in this world was to get her elected and that invite came in, you’re probably going, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no. We can’t. You will be exposed. You can’t go do this.’”
“The fact is that Kamala Harris, by the nature of who she is as a person and by the nature of what she was running on, is not built for a three-hour unedited, unscripted conversation,” Smith said. “Say whatever you will about Donald Trump. The man’s got a lot of flaws, but he is built for that. He could do eight hours, I think.”
Following the release of Rogan’s episode featuring Trump, Harris’ campaign quickly attempted to push back on the popular podcaster, calling out her team for missing the opportunity and saying they had requested that Rogan “travel to her” for the discussion.
In February, Rogan publicly responded to an excerpt from NBC reporter Jonathan Allen and The Hill reporter Amie Parnes’ new book claiming one of Rogan’s representatives allegedly relayed to the Harris team that he was unable to interview her on the same day as Trump due to it being a “personal day.” Rogan said his team had not “lied” about Trump’s interview date, but just didn’t tell them the date he was booked as he had been scheduled “a long time ago.”
“So going just into 2028, think about what a change this is. This is the new standard. To be a presidential candidate you have to be able to go and do a three-hour podcast and actually probably several of them, right? Trump did a whole bunch of them before he got elected and she didn’t and lost. That’s it,” Smith said.
“So that in itself just changes everything. Now we have to actually see who you are as a person because it doesn’t even matter. It doesn’t even matter what you’re talking about for three hours,” Smith added. “It doesn’t even matter if you’re getting grilled. It’s just I get to see who you are … That’s the new normal.”
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