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Podcaster Joe Rogan claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign officials drew the red line on discussing "marijuana legalization" while negotiating terms for a possible interview prior to her election loss.
“I think they had requirements on things that she didn’t want to talk about. She didn’t want to talk about marijuana legalization, which I thought was hilarious,” Rogan said on the episode of the Joe Rogan Experience released on Tuesday (November 12).
Harris' campaign reached out to Rogan's management about a potential interview after reports that former President Donald Trump was scheduled to participate in what would be a three-hour interview with Rogan that drew nearly 50 million views on YouTube. Comedian Adrienne Iapalucci, who was Rogan's guest on the Tuesday JRE episode, questioned why Harris' campaign prohibited marijuana legalization discussions.
“Because of her prosecuting record,” Rogan responded, referencing Harris' tenure as a California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney. “She put a lot of people in jail for weed.”
Harris' team announced a suite of policies, which included the legalization of marijuana, last month after the vice president had received criticism for her prosecutorial record on marijuana. Jennifer Palmieri, an adviser to Harris' husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, told the Financial Times that the negotiations on a Rogan interview fell threw because some staffers believed the appearance would lead to a progressive backlash.
“There was a backlash with some of our progressive staff that didn’t want her to be on it, and how there would be a backlash," Palmieri said.