WATCH: Reporter Floats Joe Rogan as White House Vaccine Messenger at Jen Psaki Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked if President Joe Biden would consider other celebrity messengers to encourage vaccinations — like maybe Joe Rogan?
Psaki held a briefing with reporters this week, during which she was asked about French President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to badger people about getting vaccinated.
Politico’s Daniel Lippman asked Psaki “why hasn’t the President focused more on kind of scolding the unvaccinated to try to tell them, ‘Hey, this is not working for society and, you know, we keep getting these shutdowns?’”
Psaki cited progress that has been made in getting people vaccinated and reducing hesitancy, and said that “the French will make their own decisions about the most effective way to communicate with their public.”
Lippman drew laughs with his follow-up, asking “Is there going to be any change in strategy in terms of messaging? You know, you guys have — had, like, the Jonas Brothers and others. But what are we — you know, Joe Rogan?”
“More Jonas Brothers,” Psaki cracked, then gave a more detailed response:
You know, I would say, Daniel, that our approach to date has been that we have looked for trusted messengers. And some of them may have been people who supported President Biden, and many of them were not.
And it’s been important to us to reach communities, meet people where they are, including with voices — some of them have been local officials. We found — and this is no surprise to most people who have been covering politics — but local officials, local leaders, pediatricians, they are often the most trusted voices in communities, but also to work with voices of people who, again, may not have voted for the President but can be effective in helping encourage people to get vaccinated.
Rogan has been a vocal skeptic and misinformer about vaccinations who hosts an influential podcast.
Watch above via C-Span.