Joe Rogan Praises Tucker Carlson’s Move to Twitter: Gives Him More Freedom to Spin Conspiracy Theories Like ‘The CIA Killed Kennedy’
Comedian turned popular podcast host Joe Rogan praised Tucker Carlson’s move to Twitter, now known as X, during a recent discussion with stand-up comedian Dave Smith.
Rogan began the discussion with his typical anti-establishment posturing, claiming that Fox News fired Carlson back in April because someone in power didn’t like what he was saying.
“Just look what they did to Tucker Carlson, who was the number one guy on television. And whatever feathers he ruffled, whatever people he pissed off. I don’t believe he’s openly discussed it yet because he’s probably got some sort of a lawsuit going on. They removed him because he was a problem. The way he was discussing things was a problem,” Rogan claimed on Thursday’s The Joe Rogan Experience.
Notably, while Fox never publicly disclosed the reason Carlson was fired, it came in the wake of his show’s staff being sued by his former booker for harassment and him calling a senior Fox executive the c-word in unredacted text messages. Carlson has been claiming he was fired as part of Fox’s $787.5 million 2020 election defamation lawsuit.
Smith replied, “Well, it’s very interesting that if you know, we’ve talked about this before, when we played clips about CNN talking about you and stuff and like that. If you listen like CNN, the way they talk about you or the way they talk about Tucker Carlson, now that you guys are in different worlds, but the way they talk about you, too, is like you’re these very controversial figures who say all of these things that are not approved of and these like very, very polarizing figures.”
“But then you’re like, no, they’re, he’s the number one guy in cable news and you’re the number one guy in podcasting. Like you guys, how are you guys viewed as controversial? But like, CNN is talking to an audience of like 200,000 people and letting you know, you know, people are very skeptical of these guys and like, no, they’re not. These are the most popular figures. And it’s because people can at least smell that you’re not bullshitting them the way these guys are,” Smith argued, suggesting Rogan’s and Carlson’s popularity somehow means they are reliable sources of information.
Rogan quickly agreed, saying, “Right.”
Smith continued and concluded by noting how the news division at Fox and Carlson, an opinion host, differed in their programming. “If you look at like, you know, the daytime at Fox News where they were on the war in Ukraine versus where Tucker was or where they were on lockdowns versus where Tucker was, it is a night and day difference. And so, of course, they removed the one interesting guy,” Smith concluded.
“Well, he was kind of doing podcasting on TV. He had gotten to the point where his show was so huge that he could kind of get away with it. And he incrementally kept ramping it up to he’s like, ‘the CIA killed Kennedy,’” Rogan added, praising Carlson for publicly pushing unproven conspiracy theories.
“Jesus, bro,” Rogan quipped.
“Yeah, he started, he started really going for it. That was great, people need to hear that,” Smith replied.
“Well, the beautiful thing is now he’s just going forward on Twitter and, you know, Elon’s like, okay, go ahead,” Rogan said.
“And you can see it in him that even though he was going for it on Fox, you can see the freedom he has like on Twitter where he’s like, okay, I’m not pulling any punches now. Yeah, and I love that. That’s beautiful,” Smith replied.
“Well, it’s important. It really is, because people need to wake the fuck up,” Rogan concluded.
In the same episode, Rogan and Smith also went all in on 2020 election denial conspiracy theories and declared “the whole thing is illegitimate.” The segment followed a recent claim from Rogan that failed GOP candidate for governor of Arizona, Kari Lake, appeared to have evidence of “real fraud” in her election, despite numerous audits and court cases all finding the opposite.
Watch the full clip above.
