Joe Rogan Claims ‘Liar’ Tim Walz Compelled Him To Throw Himself Into Presidential Race: ‘This Is So Nuts!’
Screenshot via Joe Rogan Experience
Joe Rogan said Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz was part of the reason he felt like he “had to” get involved in the presidential race.
Rogan has been at the center of numerous debates among pundits since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. The podcaster and comedian had Trump on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast shortly before the election and endorsed him the night before election day. He similarly tried to get Harris on his podcast, but those plans did not pan out.
In an episode last week with fellow comedians Shane Gillis, Ari Shaffir, and Mark Normand — released only to Spotify — Rogan argued he felt compelled to get more involved in the presidential race despite feeling politics are “gross.” One of his reasons was Walz’s claims about his military record.
Walz served more than 20 years in the National Guard, but certain points of his military time became topics for debate. Walz first faced backlash for saying during the campaign, “I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can research the impacts of gun violence. We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”
Confusion ensued as Walz had never seen active combat during his service and retired before his unit was deployed overseas. Vice President-elect JD Vance even accused his fellow veteran of “stolen valor.”
Walz also claimed he was “in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989” despite reports showing he was not in Asia that year. Walz later said he “misspoke.”
On Rogan’s podcast, he blasted Walz as a “liar,” citing the previously mentioned controversies and others.
“I wanted to stay out of the presidential election shit because it’s so gross,” he said.
“This is so nuts. When that Tim Walz guy — it’s so nuts that guy was going to be the vice president. You’re telling me this whole thing is fake then. You’re telling me that you don’t care if someone is a liar? You don’t care if they lie about their military rank, where they served, you don’t care if they lie about being an assistant, you don’t care if they lie about Tiananmen Square?” he said. “There are just too many things. This is so crazy. You would get fired if you were an assistant manager at a fucking oil change company. Jiffy Lube would fire you!”
Rogan’s argument on honesty was slammed by critics like Mehdi Hasan and others who argued supporting Trump when honesty is your central motivation does not add up.
During his four-hour-plus podcast, Rogan also hit back at criticism from The View and revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attempted to come on his podcast. Zelensky asked to speak to Rogan after the podcaster accused him of trying to start “World War III” as he defends against the Russian invasion, going so far as to say “fuck you man” to Zelensky.
“I was like, what are you talking about?” the comedian said.
