Podcaster Joe Rogan responded Tuesday to a video compilation of him saying the N-word, describing the release of the video as a “political hit job” designed to cancel his show.
Speaking with his guest, Rogan said: “In a lot of ways, all this is a relief, ’cause that video had always been out there. It’s like, this is a political hit job. And so they’re taking all this stuff that I’ve ever said that’s wrong, and smushing it all together. But it’s good ’cause it makes me address some [expletive] that I really wish wasn’t out there.”
Rogan also responded to some political figures’ comments that he should not have apologized over the weekend after the clip surfaced online and went viral.
“You should apologize if you regret something,” Rogan stated. “This idea that you should never apologize, like if you regret something, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with apologizing. But I do think you have to be very careful not to apologize for nonsense.”
He added: “I think you just have to be yourself. I really do ... And all this nonsense of worrying what your base is, is crazy. It’s like, ‘Who are you?’ You are you. If you start thinking I have to be who these other people want me to be because they’re the ones that make me popular, you’re [expletive].”
The UFC commentator has been the subject of a widespread campaign to get him removed from Spotify. It started several weeks ago when singer Neil Young wrote a letter demanding that either Spotify remove his tracks or Rogan’s podcast, and a Spotify representative later confirmed it would remove Young’s songs.
Young complained that Rogan’s show was allegedly sharing misinformation about COVID-19, although the singer did not provide evidence for the claim. Rogan responded by saying that several guests he had on his program are accredited doctors and questioned the claims of misinformation.
This week, former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, both Republicans, suggested Rogan shouldn’t have apologized because, according to them, a mob of people is trying to get his program canceled and that apologizing would be capitulating.
DeSantis, meanwhile, said that mainstream news outlets and the left “fear the fact that he can reach so many people, and so they’re out to destroy him.”
