Bernie Sanders Campaign Stands By Embrace of Joe Rogan Endorsement After Outrage Over Past Racist, Transphobic Remarks
Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign released a statement standing by Bernie’s embrace of an endorsement by comic Joe Rogan after an explosion of outrage at Rogan’s past comments, which include comparing a black neighborhood to the Planet of the Apes.
Senator Sanders released a video Thursday that featured an unsolicited clip from the Rogan podcast in which the host praises Sanders and says he will likely vote for him.
Social media reaction to the quasi-endorsement was swift and mixed between condemnation and celebration, with many users taking exception to Rogan’s views on trans people and his choice of guests.
The endorsement did have a few prominent defenders, like Vox’s Ezra Klein, who compared Sanders and Rogan to former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell.
Klein wrote that President Obama “actively courted a lot of racially resentful and conservative voters,” and that “right before the 08 election, he made a huge deal of colin powell’s endorsement, despite powell helping push America into the iraq war,” then added “whatever obama was, he wasn’t a practitioner of purity politics.”
obama actively courted a lot of racially resentful and conservative voters.
right before the 08 election, he made a huge deal of colin powell’s endorsement, despite powell helping push America into the iraq war.
whatever obama was, he wasn’t a practitioner of purity politics. https://t.co/Hpd2R0I8Og
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) January 24, 2020
But the outrage built when a 2013 clip featuring Rogan comparing a black neighborhood with the fictional “Planet of the Apes” went viral.
Then, Human Rights Campaign issued a statement denouncing Sanders’ embrace of the comic and podcast host:
The head of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, issued a statement saying that although Sanders has “run a campaign unabashedly supportive of the rights of LGBTQ people,” Rogan has “attacked transgender people, gay men, women, people of color and countless marginalized groups at every opportunity.”
“Given Rogan’s comments, it is disappointing that the Sanders campaign has accepted and promoted the endorsement,” Human Rights Campaign president Alphonso David said in the statement. “The Sanders campaign must reconsider this endorsement and the decision to publicize the views of someone who has consistently attacked and dehumanized marginalized people.”
The Sanders campaign, though, issued a statement standing by their embrace of Rogan’s endorsement:
Briahna Joy Gray, national press secretary for the Sanders campaign, issued a statement that did not name Rogan but suggested that the campaign is willing to accept support from people with whom it does not always agree.
“Sharing a big tent requires including those who do not share every one of our beliefs, while always making clear that we will never compromise our values,” said Gray. “The truth is that by standing together in solidarity, we share the values of love and respect that will move us in the direction of a more humane, more equal world.”
Mike Casca, another Sanders spokesperson, was asked if he had a reaction to the Human Rights Campaign’s statement, and told The Washington Post “No.”
Watch the Rogan segment above via PowerfulJRE.
