Joe Rogan and his producer have disputed each other over remarks made by television host Joe Scarborough about President Joe Biden.
Biden squared off against former President Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27 in the first of three debates before November’s election. Ever since, the president has been facing calls to step aside and allow another Democrat to get the party’s nomination following a bumbling performance.
Biden’s team told Newsweek the president had a cold during the debate, which explained his poor performance, and he later promised at a campaign rally “with all my heart and soul that I can do this job.”
However, during an episode of his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience with guest comedian Jimmy Dore, both men discussed how they think certain people flip-flop on their political opinions. To drive home their point, they compared the comments Scarborough made about Biden months before the debate to what he said after it took place.
Newsweek emailed spokespeople for Rogan and Scarborough for comment on Monday.
During the episode, the men pulled up a clip from Scarborough’s show Morning Joe on MSNBC in March where he discussed Biden’s debate performance, saying: “Start your tape right now ‘cos I’m about to tell you the truth. F you if you can’t handle it.”
“It’s 6 in the morning, it’s 6 in the morning, ‘F you,'” Dore jumped in before Scarborough continued: “This version of Biden—intellectually, analytically—is the best Biden ever, not a close second. I’ve known him for years.”
As Scarborough talked, Rogan and Dore laughed, disagreeing with the TV host.
“And these people say that Trump’s a liar. Trump’s a huge bulls****** for sure, but this—” Dore said, before Rogan added: “We’re in a Coen Brothers movie.”
Dore said he couldn’t understand how people could continue to watch Scarborough’s show and “have any self-respect.”
He continued: “‘F you,’ he’s going to tell his own audience, ‘F you if you don’t believe Joe Biden’s not demen—'”
Rogan said, if he was watching this in a movie theater, he wouldn’t believe what he was hearing. This is when his producer jumped in, telling the podcast host that he was confused, as he thought the video of Scarborough was from after the debate in Atlanta.
“This is that’s why I was confused when I was looking. There’s other videos I’m seeing; that might have been a different time,” the producer said.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Rogan said, before Dore added the video was from “just a few weeks ago.”
The producer continued: “This is saying right here, post the debate they should replace—”
“No, after the debate, it changes, too. That’s part of the thing,” Rogan said as the producer realized his mistake and apologized.
Rogan continued: “After the debate, he does this 180, and there’s all these videos that show him before and after, the greatest 180 turnaround of all time.”
They then played a video that compared two clips of Scarborough. In one, he’s saying Biden is “better than he’s ever been;” and in the other, he said: “In June and not October, in June, this is a last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we’ve known and loved for a very long time is up to the task.”
During that TV episode in March, Scarborough said Biden was “far beyond cogent.”
Then, during the June 28 episode of Morning Joe—the day after the debate in Atlanta—Scarborough hinted that it might be time for Democrats to tell Biden it was over after he did not rise to the occasion.
“We have to ask the same questions of [Biden] that we have asked of Donald Trump since 2016 and that is, if he were CEO and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America, any Fortune 500 Corporation in America, keep him on as CEO?” he asked.
Scarborough added: “I’m not saying that everything happens today and maybe we wait a week. I’m just saying personal feelings—admiration, love, respect, honor, all the things I talked about in my feelings about Joe Biden, Jill Biden and their family, that Mika [Brzezinski, Scarborough’s wife] and her family have felt about Joe Biden for 50 years—cannot play a role in any of this.
“This is a battle for the future of American democracy… this is the last chance for Democrats to decide whether this man we’ve known and loved for a very long time is up to the task of running for president of the United States.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.