Joe Rogan’s Bernie Endorsement Draws Outrage As Clip Surfaces Comparing Black Neighborhood to ‘Planet of the Apes’
As social media blowback builds from some over Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ decision to promote a video of comic and podcast host Joe Rogan endorsing his candidacy for president, an old clip featuring Rogan comparing a black neighborhood with the fictional “Planet of the Apes” has surfaced.
Senator Sanders released a video Thursday that featured an unsolicited clip from the Rogan podcast in which the host praises Sanders and says he will likely vote for him.
Social media reaction to the quasi-endorsement was swift and mixed between condemnation and celebration, with many users taking exception to Rogan’s views on trans people and his choice of guests.
Joe Rogan is a transphobic bigot who shills for quackery and cuddles up to dangerous racists.
Appearing on his show is bad but understandable. Publicising his endorsement is indefensible. https://t.co/A1ZcPWtFGM
— bernie & warren are both good (@mikeyfranklin) January 24, 2020
Joe Rogan regularly gives a platform to hateful people like Milo Yiannopoulos, Alex Jones, James Damore and Steven Crowder. He mainstreams sexist, racist, homophobic and transphobic rhetoric + people.
His endorsement of Bernie is an embarrassment, not a point of pride. https://t.co/KTnzP6ODCa
— Ella Dawson (@brosandprose) January 24, 2020
it’s amazing Joe Rogan endorsed Bernie Sanders – it took no compromise from Bernie Sanders on his “too far left” views, simply explaining them in a calm, human way
almost like everything people say on twitter is wrong
— Peter Coffin #iLikeBernie (@petercoffin) January 23, 2020
Possibly the most consequential endorsement Bernie’s received so far. Rogan reaches into Trump’s shaky base and excites a sector of the public that doesn’t usually vote.
Critics of this (who also tend to fall for the anti-Tulsi op) understand virtue signaling but not politics. https://t.co/hs25Ga4fHn
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) January 24, 2020
Bernie is not my candidate but it seems obvious to me that he was right to take the Joe Rogan endorsement. One premise of his campaign is that he can win some number of alienated men with reactionary social views to the left, and this is proof of concept.
— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) January 24, 2020
But even some supporters conceded that boasting about the endorsement was problematic.
I really like Bernie and am disappointed to see the campaign boost Rogan, who has made some very anti-trans comments. I really hope the campaign reconsiders. https://t.co/Npikb7Px3Z https://t.co/qbH7skzyRb
— Alexis Goldstein ?️? (@alexisgoldstein) January 23, 2020
In addition, a clip of a 2013 Rogan podcast has begun to circulate, in which he talks about going to see a “Planet of the Apes” movie in a black neighborhood. He tells his co-hosts that the driver assured him that the film was playing in a “good neighborhood.”
“We get out, we’re giggling, ‘We’re going to go see Planet of the Apes,’ We walk in to Planet of the Apes. We walked into Africa,” Rogan says in the clip.
Watch Joe Rogan, who endorsed Bernie, compare Black People to “The Planet of the Apes.”
Bernie’s campaign sure attracts Openly Racists jerks. pic.twitter.com/yX79yDKT7O
— ⚖️Bernie Sanders Will Never Be President ⚖️ (@KHiveQueenB) January 24, 2020
But the fuller context of the video is no better.
“Dude. We walked in the door, and there was no white people. There was no white people,” Rogan continued, before adding, “Planet of the Apes didn’t take place in Africa, that was a racist thing for me to say.”
“But you see what I’m saying,” Rogan continued, as another man in the video cracked, “Flies automatically stuck to your head.”
Rogan went on to explain what a “positive experience” it was to see a movie in a black neighborhood, and did impressions of some of the people he met. Rogan then went on to decry the lack of black representation in films — including in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” — and criticized a trailer in which Jonah Hill was “talking black” to a black character.
There is no evidence that Sanders or his campaign were aware of Rogan’s comments before promoting the endorsement clip. The Sanders campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Watch the full clip above via PowerfulJRE.
