Approval for Biden began to plummet after September 2021, hitting an all-time low in June with just 37.4% support from Americans, while his disapproval stood at 56.7%, according to data collected by FiveThirtyEight. During CNN’s “State of the Union,” Finney stated that while Biden’s mental health had recently come as a shock to her, she believed Biden would be remembered for his “accomplishments” in the Middle East and with foreign policy.
“You think the Middle East is in better shape today than when he took office?” Jennings pressed.
“Well, I think he got our hostages home. I think that’s a big deal. I think it’s important — ” Finney responded.
Jennings then jumped in to question which hostages Finney was referring to, to which she responded that Biden has “gotten a number of people home” before Jennings cut her off again.
“There’s still 100 people over there,” Jennings said. “Including some Americans. Look, I think he’s going to, I think he’s going to leave office in disgrace. The Hunter Biden pardon was disgraceful. He’s going to be remembered largely for inflation and for the disastrous Afghanistan pullout.”
“We’re just getting the first draft of this now, but as we continue to learn about the massive cover-up that went on, not about his health, but about his mental acuity to cover that up, the efforts that were undertaken by the White House staff, by his family, not in the last couple of months, but for all four years, I think it’s going to be a really ugly chapter. It’s a diminished presidency because of it,” Jennings said. “I think we still don’t know the full extent of what they did to try to hide what they’ve been doing over in the West Wing.”
During Biden’s presidential campaign against President-elect Donald Trump, polls showed voter concerns over Biden’s handling of the economy, with inflation ranking among their top worries before the November election. Polls also revealed concerns about Biden’s mental fitness following his poor debate performance against Trump in June, in which he was seen freezing mid-sentence and struggling to finish his arguments.
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have received push back for their handling of the disastrous 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, which resulted in the deaths of 13 service members outside Kabul International Airport. In September, Gold Star family members criticized Harris for “gaslighting” and ignoring them for the past three years after she attempted to call out Trump for filming videos at the third anniversary event at Arlington Cemetery.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>Department of Government Efficiency co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy came under fire this week after a debate over H-1B visas erupted on X. On “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Jennings was asked about the feud highlighting a division on policy within Trump’s base and whether it could harm the unity within the party so far.
“Look, there’s always been a push and pull on this in the Republican Party. I think there’s a way to work this out and solve it,” Jennings said. “I think what a lot of people would say is, Elon Musk was making this point, if you take the top 1% or the top 0.1% of the most talented engineering people from other countries, that’s perfectly fine. H-1B visas for that, they’re unique, they have unique talent, unique innovative skills, fine.”
“If you’re using the H-1B program to abuse it, to recruit interns, accountants, other people that easily could be recruited from the United States of America, all because you just want to do it cheaper, that’s not fine,” Jennings added.
Jennings went on to say how there could be a way to “retain” top visa performers, but he called out Ramaswamy for his take as it had “rightfully” angered supporters.
“So I think what a lot of people in the party want to do is eliminate the fraud in this H-1B program, retain the top engineering talent, and there’s a way to do this,” Jennings said. “What Ramaswamy did yesterday was not a great communications exercise, and it did anger a lot of people in the president’s coalition, and I think rightfully so.”
The debate over H-1B visas, one of the largest visa categories in the country, began with their use in the tech industry by users on X. According to the Department of Labor, the visas allow employers to hire skilled foreign workers and authorize “the temporary employment of qualified individuals who are not otherwise authorized to work in the U.S.”
While Musk simply commented “correct” in response to an X user’s claim that a slowdown in skilled immigration would ultimately hinder American innovation, Ramaswamy elaborated, saying how American culture uplifts “mediocrity over excellence.”
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy wrote.
Since Musk’s involvement in Trump’s campaign, Democrats have begun to ramp up their criticisms of Musk and his role in Trump’s second administration, with Democratic lawmakers like Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut referring to the billionaire as “President Musk” after he called out Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s original 1,574-page continuing resolution (CR).
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/CNN/”The Lead with Jake Tapper”)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>Trump, on Saturday night, posted to Truth Social, warning Panama that the United States would demand the canal back if it didn’t end its “ridiculous” fees, “knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S.” On “Erin Burnett OutFront,” Rose told the panel he believed the former president was threatening the country because “someone wrote him a check or someone had a pivotal meeting with him and made a promise for a future check if he acted on this issue.”
However, Urban responded to the former lawmaker by explaining the Panama Canal’s connection to China and how China has influence over the area.
“He’s so jaded! Listen to the jaded bitter guy from Staten Island there. I used to like him until a couple minutes ago,” Urban said. “Listen, Kate, it’s important. Here’s why it’s important. There is a major player in the Panama Canal that’s not Panama, it’s China, right? So the Chinese control the two biggest ports at either end of the canal.”
“In 2017, the Panamanians rejected the notion that they rejected Taiwan as a country. They sided with China. They recognized China.They signed the Belt and Road Initiative with the Chinese in 2018, expanding their sphere of influence in an area which 70% of all traffic is U.S. traffic going through from one port to another through the Panama Canal,” Urban added.
Urban went on to call out how it could be possible for the U.S. to take the canal back and how the U.S. military could be used in the process. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s Incoming Border Czar Sees A Huge Problem With Biden’s Latest Deportation Numbers)
“The treaty which was signed leaves an out for the United States that says if the neutrality of the canal is threatened, we can take it back,” Urban said. “You know how we do it? With the U.S. military. I don’t know if anybody remembers Operation Just Cause, but we sent the U.S. military down there to kick some ass and oust the president and put a new president in. We did it within about like 24 hours. So we could do it. If I was the Panamanians, I wouldn’t cozy up to the Chinese too much. If I was the Chinese, I wouldn’t get too cute.”
CNN guest host Kate Bolduan continued to ask the GOP strategist if he took Trump’s threats against Panama seriously. Urban responded by calling out how the Panamanians should treat their relationship with China with caution.
“This is U.S. national security. U.S. national security is at interest here. There’s a neutrality provision that was put in that treaty for a reason. If that neutrality is threatened by the Chinese, their Belt Road Initiative continues to expand and threatens the U.S. in terms of whether it’s allowing passage of U.S. military ships or hindering trade,” Urban said. “That was obviously put in there for a reason. We can exercise that clause.”
Since the 1990s, reports have indicated that China has slowly increased its presence within the Panama Canal by winning contracts in order to establish container ports and positioning themselves at either end of the canal, according to the Heritage Foundation. In July 2018 China Communications Construction Co Ltd and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd helped build a fourth bridge over the canal after winning a $1.42 billion contract, Reuters reported.
Trump’s callout of Panama comes after he said that the United States could take on Canada and absorb it as the 51st state. This, following Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that the country isn’t able to handle a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>Chaos in Congress erupted Wednesday after Republicans opposed a stopgap measure to keep the government funded until spring, which was introduced late Tuesday. On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Watters questioned what Gingrich would do if he were the current House speaker, stating how the issue needs to “stop.”
“Well, I think, first of all, the whole idea of the DOGE Committee has already paid for itself by having Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy begin to point out all the dumb things in this bill,” Gingrich said.
“The obvious answer is kill this bill, pass a very short continuing resolution to get the new Republican Senate installed and negotiate a new bill before January 20 that covers the rest of the year and gets the job done,” Gingrich said.
Gingrich went on to highlight two issues with the dilemma Congress faces, noting that one had to do with working with Democrats and the other involved shutting down the government.
“But it also, I would just say two things will be sort of, I think, radical for Washington. One, when you negotiate with Democrats, they’re going to put stupid things in the bill. So there’s a big disadvantage every time you let them help write the bill, because everybody on your side is going to think the bill is stupid,” Gingrich said.
“Second, we closed the government several times while I was Speaker. We would not have gotten to a balanced budget if we had not had the guts to go to the mat and say, ‘No, we’re not going to do dumb things,’ which was a great shock to Bill Clinton and a great shock to the Democrats. But the country thought, you know, it’s good not to do dumb things,” Gingrich added. “So I would hope that Republicans in the House and Senate will take seriously the warnings of President Trump and of Vivek Ramaswamy and of Elon Musk.”
Following the release of the bill Tuesday, Republicans quickly vocalized their concerns about the 1,574-page continuing resolution (CR) that had hoped to avoid a government shutdown. While Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson scrapped the last-minute measure by Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise also said the bill was dead, with no clear path forward, as there was “no new agreement right now,” according to CBS News.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”Jesse Watters Primetime”)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>Biden released a statement Sunday evening announcing his pardon of Hunter Biden’s cases, claiming that any “reasonable” person reviewing the facts in the case would conclude that his son was being targeted because of his connection to the president. In a filing on Tuesday evening, Scarsi, who presided over Hunter’s federal tax case in California, criticized the president for misrepresenting the facts in his statement.
“According to the President, ‘[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of [Mr. Biden’s] cases can reach any other conclusion than [Mr. Biden] was singled out only because he is [the President’s] son.’ But two federal judges expressly rejected Mr. Biden’s arguments that the Government prosecuted Mr. Biden because of his familial relation to the President,” Scarsi wrote.
U.S. district court judge takes issue with Biden’s claim in his pardon that no reasonable person looking at the case could reach any conclusion other than that Hunter was targeted because he is the POTUS’s son, noting that federal judges & Biden’s own DOJ rejected that argument. pic.twitter.com/vdxX9YDXyr
— Jerry Dunleavy IV (@JerryDunleavy) December 4, 2024
“And the President’s own Attorney General and Department of Justice personnel oversaw the investigation leading to the charges. In the President’s estimation, this legion of federal civil servants, the undersigned included, are unreasonable people,” Scarsi said. “In short, a press release is not a pardon. The Constitution provides the President with broad authority to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 1, but nowhere does the Constitution give the President the authority to rewrite history.”
In September, Hunter pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in his California case after he allegedly failed to pay an estimated $1.4 million in taxes and filed falsified tax paperwork. While Scarsi had initially accepted the plea and scheduled Hunter’s sentencing for Dec. 16, he stated in his recent ruling that he would vacate the sentencing hearing but would not terminate the case until the pardon is formally signed by Biden.
Since Biden’s announcement to pardon his son, the president has faced major backlash from pundits and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle due to his and his staff’s repeated denials that he would pardon Hunter.
Biden released a statement Sunday evening announcing that he had pardoned Hunter after the younger Biden was convicted on three felony gun charges in June. On “The Bulwark,” host and libertarian political strategist Tim Miller questioned “what leg” Democrats “have to stand” on, leading the two to discuss how Biden’s decisions have affected his legacy throughout his term.
“They don’t have any leg. That’s the whole thing. But like, it wasn’t going to stop Trump from pardoning every J6er he wanted to anyway. So it’s, again, I don’t think we’re like that far apart. I just view it kind of differently. I think to me, this is a stupid step that Biden probably felt he had to take,” Stein responded.
“But ultimately, it’s not going to cause irreparable damage to our norms. Our norms are shattered,” Stein added. “Like we are picking, we’re staring at the ashes right now and we’re like, ‘Oh no, how could he?’ But it’s like, yeah, we just got a big pile of shit put on our arms. He’s adding a little bit more.”
Miller went on to express his frustration with Biden, calling out a recent photo of the president smiling during his meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at the White House last month to discuss the upcoming transition of executive power.
“I’m so mad at Joe Biden right now,” He already did the stupid happy, happy, joy, joy picture with Trump. Like the whole thing. I don’t know. I think that Joe Biden has acted unimaginably selfishly this year,” Miller said.
“I think that if you have a list of people that you, I mean, like that you want to blame for the current predicament in which we’re in, obviously the Republicans are all at the top. Mitch McConnell is at the top,” Miller continued. “The fact that they didn’t, they didn’t impeach and convict him. But like, once you move past the Republicans, it’s hard for me to think of anybody.”
Stein responded to the host, stating that while Biden defeated Trump in 2020, he has made “very ill-founded and selfish” decisions throughout his four years in office.
“He’s such a weird historical figure, right? Like on the one hand, obviously deeply sympathetic guy. On the other [hand], we should recognize he defeated Trump for like four years without Trump because Joe Biden defeated him in 2020,” Stein said.
“Got us out of the pandemic and then just sort of acted, like made one very ill-founded and selfish move after another. Then we end up here,” Stein continued. “Again, not a straight line. A lot of people could have helped. A lot of people could have prevented this.”
Following Vice President Kamala Harris’ defeat, Democrats have questioned where her campaign went wrong after the party lost both the Electoral College and the popular vote. Some have criticized Harris’ rhetoric against the former president, while others, like Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, have suggested that if Biden had stepped down before July 21, the party could have held an open primary to select and strengthen their candidate.
In Biden’s statement regarding Hunter, the president claimed the cases against his son were brought forward only because he is a Biden. However, prior to the decision, Biden and his staff had repeatedly assured the public that he had no intention of pardoning his son, stating in June that he was “satisfied” with the conviction and that he wasn’t “going to do anything.”
Trump announced Saturday his new pick for FBI director as his former chief of staff to the secretary of defense, Kash Patel. On ABC News’ “This Week,” co-host Jonathan Karl began by questioning the lawmaker on his initial reaction to Trump’s nomination, to which Rounds pointed out that it was not only within the president’s rights to make a nomination but also normal for a president to want a loyalist on his team.
“I’ll also share with you — Chris Wray, you know, who the president nominated the first time around. I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term. When we meet with him behind closed doors, I’ve had no objections to the way that he’s handled himself. So I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now,” Rounds said.
Over the years, Republicans have repeatedly called out Wray, with all the 2024 GOP presidential candidates, except for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, vowing they would fire the director and implement either structural reforms or dismantle the bureau altogether. In 2022, the House Judiciary Committee released a 1,050-page report alleging the agency is “broken” due to Wray’s and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s leadership, as they oversaw an agency that allegedly “altered and mischaracterized evidence to federal courts, circumvented safeguards, and exploited weaknesses in policies.”
“Once again, the president has the right to make nominations, but normally these are for a 10-year term. We’ll see what his process is and whether he actually makes that nomination,” Rounds said. “Then if he does, just as with anybody who is nominated for one of these positions, once they’ve been nominated by the president, then the president gets, the benefit of the doubt on the nomination. But we still go through a process, and that process includes advice and consent, which for the Senate means advice or consent sometimes.”
Less than a year after the report was released, Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced an article of impeachment against Wray, accusing the FBI director of guiding the agency to intimidate, harass and entrap “American citizens who have been deemed enemies of the Biden regime.”
Wray has come under fire over the years for issues like raiding Mar-a-Lago in search of national security material, failing to answer whether the FBI had informants in the field during Jan. 6, refusing to confirm if President Joe Biden had mishandled classified information after leaving office in 2017, allegedly aiding in the slow-walking of criminal investigations into Hunter Biden’s alleged unpaid taxes from 2017 and 2018, and questioning if Trump was hit by an actual bullet during a hearing after the first assassination attempt against the former president.
Lawmakers also called out the FBI director and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last month after their refusal to speak before the Senate on global threats facing the U.S. homeland, highlighting how the dismal departs “from the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s longstanding tradition of transparency and oversight of the threats facing our nation, for the first time in more than 15 years.”
Patel has also long vocalized his criticism of the weaponization of the surveillance state, stating during a recent podcast what his plans would be if he were to assume the director’s role.
“I’d shut down the FBI Hoover building on day one and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state,” Patel said in the interview. “I’d take the 7,000 employees who work in that building and send them across America to chase down criminals.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
Throughout Harris’ campaign, the vice president and her spokespeople often touted how Harris could be the official to bring joy to Americans. On “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the British journalist played a clip of Harris’ nearly 10-minute thank you to voters, encouraging supporters to “never let anybody take your power.”
“She just looked like a broken woman to me. This was a woman who was selling us joy, who looked utterly miserable, still talking in a kind of generalized word salad way. Also talking nonsense, because of course the Democrats took a massive drubbing, and it’s on her watch. So of course, they’re all going to feel not as confident and strong as they were before,” Morgan said. “They need a radical rethink, I think, the Democrats, but it was kind of sad, wasn’t it, that video?”
Kasparian responded to Morgan’s remarks.
“I thought it was kind of funny. Like, I see myself as a 22 year old at three in the morning at a bar talking to a best friend,” Kasparian said. “That’s what I sound like, ‘Don’t let anybody take your power away from you.’ But putting that aside, there’s a part of me that feels a little bad for Kamala Harris, because I do feel that she was basically set up to lose, right? I mean, you have Joe Biden coming out of the gate saying that he’s going to tap a black woman for his VP.”
Kasparian went on to say that President Joe Biden’s choice of picking a “token” based on race set up Harris for her loss. She also called out Biden and Harris campaign advisors who said during a podcast that they had no backup plan after the president dropped his re-election bid.
“When you do that, what it signals to the rest of the country is that you’re gonna pick a token to make a point,” Kasparian said. “It’s not based on merit. I think that’s an issue, and it doesn’t look good. But then on top of that, really, the person who deserves a great deal of blame, actually, the people who deserve a great deal of blame is Joe Biden.”
“[He] refused to drop out of the race, decided to run for a second term, even though he had promised not to run for a second term. And all of the campaign officials surrounding him, who, by the way, just yesterday on ‘Pod Save America,’ admitted that after Biden had that disastrous debate performance, they didn’t have a plan B,” Kasparian said. “They didn’t engage in a plan B. The only thing they were hyper focused on was keeping Biden in the race. How irresponsible is that?”
“The Young Turks” co-host concluded by questioning how the campaign advisers could be comfortable with Biden leading the country for another four years, despite his “level of cognitive decline,” stating that the party has “lost its credibility, entirely.”
Following Biden’s withdrawal from the race and his endorsement of Harris on July 21, the vice president was repeatedly pressed on her flip-flopping of left-wing policies she had promoted prior to 2020, as well as her reported avoidance of sitting with corporate media for an in-depth interview on the issues. However, despite losing both the Electoral College and the popular vote, some Democratic pundits appeared confused as to how the vice president could have lost to Trump.
In a recent CBS/YouGov poll, 59% of voters approved of how Trump is handling the transition of power.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/”Piers Morgan Uncensored”)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>Following Trump’s election win, the former president announced Homan as his new “border czar,” saying that the former ICE director would “be in charge of all deportations of illegal aliens back to their country of origin.” On “The Ingraham Angle,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham played a clip of Democratic Tucson Mayor Regina Romero stating that she is “unwavering” in her commitment to “protecting and serving Tucsonans,” calling the deportation plans “cruel and immoral.”
“Well, first of all, what’s cruel about it? We have a massive illegal immigration flow on the border, historic flows that overwhelm the Border Patrol, sex trafficking up 600%, 250,000 dead Americans from Fentanyl. We got a record number of known suspected terrorists and people on the terrorist watch lists crossing the border,” Homan said. “We got children dying on the border every day. We got women being sexually assaulted by the cartels every day. Someone’s going to die on the border tonight. Women are being raped on the border tonight.”
“So what’s cruel about securing that border and saving lives, first of all? But I’ll give her the same warning I’m giving the rest of the sanctuary city mayors and the governors. You can not help us. That’s fine. You should get the hell out of the way. We’re going to do the job,” Homan added.
Homan went on to say that Trump has promised Americans that his first priorities will address public and national security threats, warning Democratic officials not to get in the way of the federal government.
“President Trump has said public safety threats and national security threats will be the priority right out of the gate. I can’t believe there’s any elected official that doesn’t want public safety threats out of their communities. Their number one responsibility is protecting the communities. So if they’re not going to do it, we’ll do it for them,” Homan said. “You can not help, but don’t impede us and don’t not knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien from ICE, because that is a felony.”
“We got one hell of an attorney general coming in, Pam Bondi. I think she will read that statute the same way I do it. I’m not a lawyer, but I can read. We’re going to have consequences of people who violate the law and try to prevent us from doing our job,” Homan said.
In addition to Romero’s warning to Trump, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston vowed Thursday to resist the president’s plans, claiming that the city’s police and residents will push back. Others, like the Los Angeles City Council, approved an ordinance on Nov. 19 declaring the city a “sanctuary city,” preventing the use of local resources for immigration enforcement and prohibiting city agencies from sharing information to federal authorities about illegal immigrants.
Despite the pushback, Trump confirmed on Nov. 18 that he plans to declare a national emergency, using military assets to assist in his deportation operation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/Fox News/”The Ingraham Angle”)
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
]]>During Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, some Democrats warned the presidential nominee about her messaging to voters, with others urging her to tell the “progressive left” to “fuck off.” On “Offline with Jon Favreau,” host Jon Favreau asked Johnson why he believes the image of the Democratic Party has shifted, noting that Democrats were once seen as “cool.”
“When I was growing up, if anybody was going to get mad at something that was said on a comedy special or on Saturday Night Live, it was going to be a Republican. It was the moral majority. It was when Christian conservatism was such an enormous force in American politics, even more so than it is today,” Johnson said.
“Something has switched where we all know this, that if something gets said on Saturday night live that is off-color or offensive or outrageous or whatever today, it’s going to be Democrats getting mad at it. I think part of this is it’s not the party itself,” Johnson added. “It’s not Nancy Pelosi necessarily doing this or Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, but there’s kind of this blob. There’s kind of this progressive blob of activists and academics and nonprofit workers and journalists. They do a lot of scolding and shaming and, and lecturing about all kinds of topics. This is what colors people’s perceptions of Democrats.”
Johnson went on to say that because Harris didn’t campaign on progressive issues like “DEI” or “niche trans issues,” he didn’t blame her for the party’s progress, noting that he doesn’t believe there will be progressive cultural influences like Rogan.
“I don’t blame Kamala Harris for this individually. I don’t think this is her personal fault because I didn’t see her going out and campaigning on like DEI or saying ‘Latinx’ or niche trans issues or whatever the culture war is right now. But it’s these kind of stand in Democrats, these people who cement the view in the public eye of what a Democrat is, but who have no formal allegiance to the party,” Johnson continued.
“This ultimately is one of the reasons that I think the whole conversation about, you know, can there be a progressive Joe Rogan? I don’t think that it’s possible because I don’t think that Joe Rogan, you know, decided to leave and become a right winger of his own accord,” Johnson said. “I think we pushed him out. I think this was an active choice that a lot of people made that we don’t want or need Joe Rogan because, as has been observed by many people, if you want to — kind of a Democratic Joe Rogan, a Joe Rogan character who is sympathetic to Democratic ideas, we already had one, and his name was Joe Rogan.”
Just over a week before Election Day, Rogan released a nearly three-hour episode with President-elect Donald Trump, discussing his plans for a second administration and reflecting on his first years in the White House. The night before the election, the popular podcast host endorsed the former president, stating that billionaire Elon Musk had made a strong case on his behalf.
Since the election, Democrats have struggled to understand how the vice president lost both the Electoral College and popular vote to Trump, with MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Sunday stating that the party is in the “wilderness” with “no clear leader.”