Joe Rogan has addressed rumors that his podcast episode interviewing Republican candidate Donald Trump was censored by YouTube.
The former president sat down with Rogan for a three-hour episode of The Joe Rogan Show, which was released on Friday, October 25. But the episode was not initially listed on YouTube, meaning the episode could only be shared through a direct link and did not come up in search results on the website.
Rogan wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on October 26: “There is no issue with YouTube censoring the Trump episode. It was just supposed to go live on both Spotify and YouTube at the same time and there was a glitch in Spotify’s upload system and so we delisted the YouTube link until it’s fixed. It should be fine now.”
However, several days after Rogan said there was “no issue” with the video listing, he posted the entire episode on X for his listeners, writing: “Since there’s an issue with searching for this episode on YouTube here is the full podcast with Trump.”
Comedian Joe Rogan performs during his appearance at The Ice House Comedy Club on March 15, 2019 in Pasadena, California. Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a town hall at the Convention Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, October 20, 2024. Rogan has addressed claims YouTube censored his interview with the former president.
GETTY
Rogan also reposted a post by David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO of software company Basecamp and racing driver, who wrote: “Tried to find the Rogan/Trump interview on YouTube but no matter what I search, it’s not coming up. Would be beyond bonkers if they’re actively trying to suppress it. Must be a glitch, right?” His post included a video of Rogan-Trump clips appearing in YouTube’s search results, but not showing the full episode of the podcast.
“For some searches on Monday the original 3-hour interview didn’t appear prominently,” YouTube said in a statement seen by Variety. “Short excerpts uploaded by the Joe Rogan channel appeared, but we know it was frustrating for users looking to find the full video. We’ve worked to resolve this and viewers will begin seeing the full podcast in more YouTube search results soon.”
There is no issue with YouTube censoring the trump episode. It was just supposed to go live on both Spotify and YouTube at the same time and there was a glitch in Spotify’s upload system and so we delisted the YouTube link until it’s fixed. It should be fine now
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) October 26, 2024
Newsweek has contacted Google, which owns YouTube, for additional comment via email outside of regular working hours.
During the episode, Trump reflected on his regrets from his first term in the White House, spoke about proposed policy initiatives such as abolishing income tax, and reiterated unfounded claims regarding the rigging of the 2020 election.
Rogan also took to X to address a potential episode featuring Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
“Also, for the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour,” he wrote. “I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin. My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”
Harris campaign spokesperson Ian Sams told Reuters that an interview won’t be possible during this election campaign. “We talked with Rogan and his team about the podcast. Unfortunately it isn’t going to work out right now because of the scheduling of this … period of the campaign,” Sams said.
