Kamala Harris Says Joe Rogan ‘Lied’ About Her Willingness To Discuss Marijuana On His Podcast

Former Vice President Kamala Harris says Joe Rogan “lied” when he claimed
she refused to talk about marijuana with him—writing in a newly published
book that her 2024 presidential campaign specifically pitched a
conversation about cannabis despite the podcaster saying her team resisted
the issue.

In her book “107 Days,” the title of which is a reference to the limited
time she had to campaign for the presidency after former President Joe
Biden bowed out of the race, Harris discussed the controversy over plans to
join Rogan on his podcast in the run-up to Election Day last year.

Shortly after the election that cemented President Donald Trump’s second
term, Rogan alleged that Harris “didn’t want to talk about marijuana
legalization” when she was invited on the show.

Rogan, who ultimately endorsed Trump shortly before the election, said he
thought the alleged refusal to discuss cannabis “was hilarious.”

But according to Harris, the opposite was true.

The then-vice president’s team “suggested topics that might interest
Rogan’s audience such as cannabis, social media censorship, and crypto,”
Harris wrote in the book, which was published on Tuesday. “Rogan’s team
said they just wanted to discuss the economy, immigration and abortion.”

In the months since the botched interview scheduling, Rogan “has lied on
his show, claiming we pushed for tight topic restrictions,” and he “even
claimed that the very topics we had suggested were ones we’d refused to
discuss,” Harris said.

No interview ultimately materialized due to scheduling conflicts and
Rogan’s unwillingness to do the podcast remotely outside of his studio in
Austin, the former vice president said. And on a day that the Democratic
candidate’s team pitched in October of last year, she said she was advised
that Rogan was taking a “personal day,” only later to learn that he was
interviewing Trump that day.

But Harris’s account of the events as it relates to marijuana conflicts
with Rogan’s.

On the episode of his podcast where he addressed the Harris interview
controversy, comedian Adrienne Iapalucci asked Rogan why the then-vice
president wouldn’t want to talk about marijuana.

After all, Harris had reaffirmed her support for cannabis legalization on
the campaign trail, sponsored a bill to end federal prohibition during her
time in the Senate and would presumably benefit from highlighting her
advocacy for the bipartisan issue in the run-up to the election.

The campaign’s contention, Rogan said, was “because of her prosecuting
record” in California. Harris has faced criticism over her role as a San
Francisco district attorney and state attorney general, with opponents
frequently pointing to data on cannabis arrests that took place under her
leadership.

“She put a lot of people in jail for weed—1,500 apparently,” the podcaster
said.

Marijuana Moment reached out to Rogan’s team for comment, but a
representative was not immediately available.

Harris also briefly addressed that issue in her new book, saying her
prosecutorial record “had been mischaracterized.”

“When I became a district attorney, this country was in an even worse place
than it is now on criminal justice. I was one of the first elected
progressive district attorneys, looking for ways to keep nonviolent
offenders out of jail rather than put them in it,” she wrote. “I didn’t
seek jail time for simple marijuana offenses.”

During the campaign, Trump had also gone after Harris over her
prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and
thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full
record of her time in office is more nuanced.

Data from the San Francisco District Attorney’s office that was featured in
an investigative report from the Bay Area News Group showed that there were
1,956 *convictions* for misdemeanor and felony marijuana offenses from 2004
and 2010 when Harris led the office. But the number of people who were
actually sent to state prison was 45. That said, it’s unclear how many
people were sent to county jail, so the total figure may be higher.

Harris received criticism from the cannabis reform community over a video
her office posted in early 2024 that prematurely claimed the Biden
administration had “changed” federal marijuana policies.

Trump, for his part, endorsed federal rescheduling of cannabis as well as
an ultimately failed Florida marijuana legalization ballot measure in the
weeks before Election Day last year. Since he took office, however, the
marijuana rescheduling process initiated under the Biden administration has
remained stalled—though the president has suggested a decision on the
matter will come within weeks.

*Image element courtesy of Joe Rogan.*

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Discuss Marijuana On His Podcast appeared first on Marijuana Moment.