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.
Harris’ book, “107 Days”, which was published in response to controversy regarding her plans to be a guest on Rogan’s podcast before Election Day of last year.
Rogan claimed, shortly after Donald Trump was re-elected to his second term as president, that Harris had “refused to speak about marijuana legalization,” when she appeared on her show.
Rogan, a Trump supporter who endorsed him shortly before the elections, thought that the refusal to talk about cannabis was “hilarious.”
Harris however, argues that the reverse is true.
Harris, in his book that was released on Tuesday, wrote: “The then-vice presidential’s team suggested topics which might be of interest to Rogan’s audience, including cannabis, social network censorship and crypto.” The team of Rogan said that they only wanted to talk about the economy, immigration and abortion.
Harris stated that Rogan has “lied” on his radio show in the months following the interview schedule disaster, saying we wanted strict topic limitations. He “even said the topics we suggested we refused to talk about,” Harris added.
The former vice president stated that no interview was conducted due to conflicting schedules and Rogan’s refusal to conduct the podcast outside his Austin studio. On a pitch day for the Democratic campaign in October, last year, Rogan told her that he would take a “personal” day. But later she found out that Rogan interviewed Trump on that particular day.
Harris’s story of what happened in regards to marijuana differs from Rogan’s.
Adrienne Iapalucci questioned Rogan on the podcast episode where he discussed the Harris interview controversy why then Vice President Harris wouldn’t 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.
Rogan stated that the campaign was claiming this “because of [her] prosecuting record in California.” Harris was criticized for her work as San Francisco’s district attorney, and then state attorney general. Opponents often cited data about cannabis arrests made under Harris.
“She put a lot of people in jail for weed—1,500 apparently,” the podcaster said.
MEDCAN24 contacted Rogan’s team to get a response, but a member was not readily available.
Harris mentions this issue briefly in her latest book. She says that her prosecution record has been “mischaracterized.”
“This country’s criminal justice was worse than now when I first became district attorney. She wrote, “I was elected as one of the country’s first progressive district attorneys. I looked for ways to prevent nonviolent criminals from going to jail. I didn’t want to jail people for minor marijuana charges.
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.
In an investigation by the Bay Area News Group, data from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office showed that 1,956 people were charged with crimes. Confiscations For misdemeanors and felonies marijuana crimes from 2004 to 2010, when Harris was in charge of the office. However, the actual number of inmates sent to state jail was 45. Although it is not known how many were actually sent to the county jail. The total number may therefore be higher.
Trump supported federal marijuana rescheduling as well as a Florida marijuana legalization measure, which ultimately failed, in the weeks leading up to Election Day. Trump has not made any progress on rescheduling marijuana under Biden’s administration since he took office in January. But he has hinted that the decision will be reached within a few weeks.
Joe Rogan is the source of this image element.