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Bernie Sanders plugs Joe Rogan endorsement—and women are furious

People are not happy Rogan is on the Bernie train.

Photo of David Covucci

David Covucci

joe rogan and bernie sanders

Several days ago, on his immensely popular podcast, Joe Rogan said that he would “probably” vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic primary.

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That rather mild endorsement passed without much attention in the following few days. But last night, Sanders tweeted a clip of the interview.

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Sharing the clip sparked fierce criticism. Over the past two weeks, in the wake of the reports of his private conversations with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) about a woman president, more center-leaning Democrats have revived the accusations of sexism against Sanders and his campaign that circled around his 2016 run.

That conversation was flamed when Hillary Clinton in an interview called out Bernie Bros for their behavior online.

Rogan himself has faced a bevy of criticisms, often being called a gateway to the far-right, as he’s hosted numerous figureheads in the movement on his podcast.

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His podcast has also received its own sexism criticisms, as he disproportionately has men as guests.

Given the perfect compliment of factors, the endorsement was ripe for criticism from anybody but Bernie Democrats.

“Joe Rogan also had friendly interviews with Milo Yiannopolous & Jordan Peterson, yelled ‘you’re a fucking man’ on-air about a trans woman, vocally argued against allowing trans kids puberty blockers THIS YEAR, says ‘f*g,’ and believes the world is stacked against men, so. Enjoy,” wrote writer Sady Doyle on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/sadydoyle/status/1220513471995031554

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That sentiment was echoed across the social media platform, especially by women, as the endorsement became the top trending topic.

https://twitter.com/Kamalaallday/status/1220659458227032066

https://twitter.com/brosandprose/status/1220541537047785473

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https://twitter.com/BassBassriley/status/1220691795354554368

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The counterargument was also made, that Sanders has a unique ability among the Democratic electorate to attract the kind of voters who may have chosen Trump in 2016.

And that those voters are the exact kind of people who would listen to Rogan.

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All that said, Rogan lives in California, which has a closed primary. It’s not clear if he’s a registered Democrat, so he may not even be able to vote for Sanders if he wanted to.

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The Daily Dot