Tim Dillon Rejects ‘Crazy’ Idea That Podcasters Turned Voters Off to Kamala Harris

Comedian and podcast host Tim Dillon dismissed the idea that online personalities like himself played a decisive role in sinking Vice President Kamala Harris’s failed 2024 presidential campaign, arguing that pinning the blame on podcasters is a convenient deflection from deeper political issues within the Democratic Party.

The postmortem analysis of Harris’s campaign has cited various factors, but some commentary has zeroed in on the growing influence of podcast culture as a vital platform during the campaign – a claim Dillon finds both flattering and absurd.

Speaking in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with CNN journalist Elle Reeve, Dillon pushed back on the idea that he and other comics in the podcasting world were part of a new “establishment” and hold more sway than the traditional political machine.

Part of the problem, he noted, boiled down simply to Harris’s poor campaign and prospects:

But this is a very specific circumstance in which Kamala Harris ran for president. She was somewhat unpopular and she was not a star in Democratic politics before this at all. And her communication strategy was pretty weak. I think most people admitted that. So to hang this defeat all on a few podcasts and to say that they were the problem, I never – I don’t buy – I just don’t buy the narrative.

Rounding on the notion that podcasts helped push President Donald Trump’s campaign over the line, Dillon added that “a few comedians have more power than multimillionaires”:

I don’t think I’m the new establishment. If you weigh, again, a few comedians with podcast versus all of the people that supported Kamala Harris, you know, Democrat donors, billionaires, big people, if the idea is that me and a few comedians have more power than multibillionaires, huge media institutions, our whole political party apparatus, I just don’t think most people are going to buy that.

I think it seems like a great way to excuse running an unpopular candidate on a platform that American people weren’t sold on.

Reeve pressed the comedian further, arguing that beyond the question of the election, “there is power in a massive audience.”

Dillon mocked the idea “that that power is equal to the CIA” or other forces he said were against Trump: “The idea that like the power that Theo Von has would be equal to like the intelligence agencies or these massive legacy media institutions seems crazy.”

Reeve doubled down to push the view before Dillon interrupted in response: “Well, just, you used the word establishment. I didn’t say that we didn’t have any power or that audiences weren’t powerful. But when you use the term establishment, I think that that’s more than just having an audience. That’s having an institutional component that I don’t think we have.”

Taking aim at “legacy” media outlets and cable networks, he added: “But I think legacy media does. I think the government and the intelligence communities do. I think Hollywood certainly does. And I think all of those people, all of those power factions have worked together for a very, very, very long time. So to say that a few comedians with podcasts equal that seems crazy to me. I see why.”

Watch above via CNN.