Joe Rogan likes RFK Jr., and that’s bad news for Trump

Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan voiced support for Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., throwing a possible wrench into the 2024 campaign cycle.

Kennedy’s initial foray into the race surprised some last year, and his bid picked up steam online after appearances on Rogan’s show and a host of other popular podcasts.

“I am a fan. He’s the only one that makes sense to me,” Rogan said of Kennedy during a recent show. “He’s the only one that doesn’t attack people. He attacks actions and ideas, but he’s much more reasonable and intelligent. The guy was an environmental attorney and cleaned up the East River. He’s a legitimate guy.” 

Rogan endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary and said he voted for Libertarian Jo Jorgensen in the general election that cycle.

Kennedy thanked Rogan for his support in an X post on Thursday night.

Multiple news outlets reported Rogan’s comments as an endorsement of Kennedy, leading to heavy backlash from supporters of former President Donald Trump and an eventual clarification from the podcaster.

“For the record, this isn’t an endorsement. This is me saying that I like RFKjr [sic] as a person, and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence,” he wrote in a statement Friday afternoon. “I think we could use more of that in this world. I also think Trump raising his fist and saying ‘fight!’ after getting shot is one of the most American f**king things of all time. I’m not the guy to get political information from.”

As of Friday, Kennedy claims to have been granted ballot access in 17 states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Vermont. His campaign says it has submitted petitions and associated signatures to appear in an additional 23 states.

Independent election trackers, however, currently show him qualifying to appear on ballots in 15 states: Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Vermont, accounting for a total of 174 Electoral College votes. 

With his polling plummeting recently, thanks in large part to a string of controversies, including admitting to depositing a dead bear cub in Central Park a decade ago, Kennedy has virtually no chance of winning the election himself. Earlier this year, Kennedy polled in the mid-double digits but now sees his support hovering around 5% nationally. He remains the only Independent candidate to average support greater than 1%.

Still, his presence in the race could have a major impact on the November results, and it could have allies of Trump, such as former top adviser Steve Bannon, regretting their past championing of Kennedy’s vaccine policies.

Prior to President Joe Biden‘s 2024 withdrawal in July, polling consistently found Kennedy pulling more support from Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents than from Republicans.

But now that Vice President Kamala Harris has entered the race, that dynamic has shifted dramatically, according to an analysis from The Washington Post.

The outlet looked at polls from Reuters/Ipsos, The New York Times/Sienna College, The Wall Street Journal, Marquette University, CBS/YouGov, and NPR/PBS/Marist College, finding that Harris’s average lead over Trump expands from 1.5 points in a head-to-head matchup to 3.3 points when Kennedy is included. 

“Since the Democratic ticket turned over from Biden to Harris last month, a half-dozen quality polls have tested both a Trump-Harris matchup and a crowded race that included independent and third-party candidates. In all of them, Harris performed better in the crowded race,” the analysis reads. “Just about all of those numbers are within the margin of error, and the shifts are small. But given this is now a half-dozen polls, and that these shifts are among the voters in the same poll, it’s safe to say third-party candidates are now hurting Trump more.”

The Hill‘s polling average on Friday similarly saw Harris performing better in a three-way race than in a head-to-head with Trump.

The former president and current vice president are tied in a two-way race, but Harris leads her opponent by 3.2 points on average with Kennedy’s inclusion.

The Harris campaign declined to comment for this story, while Trump campaign officials pointed back to Rogan’s Friday statement.