Kamala Harris’ risky move as she appears on Fox News, chases interview with Joe Rogan
Kamala Harris is set to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast in a last-ditch bid to claw back male voters from Donald Trump.
The Vice President will also face a tough grilling today when she appears on Fox News for a 30-minute sit-down interview.
US political commentator Megyn Kelly questioned why Harris would take any risks so close to election day.
“There’s zero chance they’d (Harris camp) be taking the risks they’re taking now if they had good internal polling,” she told Sky News Australia.
Kelly predicted Harris would face “tougher, more pointed” questions on Fox News.
She also claimed there was “zero chance” Harris would be able to endure a three-hour, live discussion with Rogan.
‘One slip-up. could derail momentum’
Harris campaign officials met with Rogan’s team this week but haven’t finalised the sit-down interview, two sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
Rogan’s podcast is the most popular in the world, with 14.5 million followers on Spotify. A staggering 80 per cent of its listeners are male and over half are aged 18-34 years old.
The move could make or break Harris’ presidential bid, experts say, with fears “one slip-up, gaffe, or brain freeze could derail momentum.”
“The Democrat path to victory means gaining the votes of an alliance of women, the young and minorities,” Mark Shanahan, an expert in US politics at the University of Surrey, told Newsweek.
“Joe Rogan has a high listenership among under 35s, especially men—and a high proportion of those are young black men. This is an area where Harris’s reach is perceived to be weak, so the opportunity to connect with them can’t be scorned.”
Mr Shanahan said Harris would need to be switched on to “react to the unexpected”, warning Rogan “won’t go easy on her.”
“But if she can shift the thinking of even a tiny percentage of listeners in the battleground states, even just getting a few reluctant voters to the polls, it could make all the difference in states where the race is achingly tight.”
Robbie Vorhaus, a communications and crisis strategist, said he would have counselled Harris to treat the podcast appearance like her “candidacy depended on it.”
“For Harris, if she could make Rogan laugh and build rapport, it could tip the scales with undecided male voters,” he told the Daily Beast.
“One slip-up, gaffe, or brain freeze could derail momentum,” he added.
Mike Nellis, a former senior adviser to Harris, took to X to praise Harris’ move after reports first broke she was pushing for an interview with Rogan.
“I know a lot of people are going to hate this if it happens, but it’s the right call,” he wrote.
“There’s no larger, more captive audience of potentially movable voters than men listening to Rogan right now. Even a small fraction of movement here could seal the deal.”
Mr Nellis told The Daily Beast: “While Harris isn’t going to win over white male voters en masse, even small shifts within that group could significantly ease her path to victory.”
“It’s not about the interviewer, it’s about the audience,” he said. “She’s looking for every opportunity to connect with those who might be receptive to her message.”
Lakshya Jain, the young CEO of Gen Z election analysis firm Split Ticket, said “Harris needs Rogan way more than the other way around.”
“She has a problem with male voters and a Rogan podcast appearance gives her exposure that *nothing* else would,” he wrote on X.
Gender divisions have been a key theme of the 2024 presidential election.
Former President Barack Obama raised eyebrows last week for complaining about black men for not being enthusiastic about Harris.
“We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all quarters of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running. Now, I also want to say that seems to be more pronounced with the brothers,” Obama said last week.
A recent Pew Research survey found more than half of male voters (51 per cent) prefer Trump to Harris (43 per cent).
The results were mirrored for females, with Harris at 52 per cent and Trump at 43 per cent.
Harris to appear on Fox News
Meanwhile, Harris will become the first Democratic presidential nominee in eight years – since Hilary Clinton - to appear on Fox News for a formal interview.
Fox News’ ‘Special Report’ will air at 6pm on Wednesday local time (9am AEST).
Apart from a grilling on CBS’ 60 Minutes, Harris has faced mostly friendly questioning during chats with Howard Stern, Stephen Colbert, podcaster Alex Cooper and on The View.
Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier, who will sit down with Harris in the battleground state of Pennslyvania, said the interview would run “uninterrupted, unedited, all the way.”
“We have a lot of eyeballs. We have Democrats, independents and Republicans,” Baier said.
“We have the biggest cable news audience. And this is probably going to get a lot more eyeballs. I think tough but fair is what I pitched it as. And I think that’s what they’re going to see.”
Democratic strategist Chris Moyer said “voters like to know that they’re going to elect somebody who can handle not just the friendly interviews.”
“She knows there are going to be hard questions. She can handle those,” he told Fox News.
“Going through that process and handling that, you’re kind of going behind enemy lines a little bit.”
‘Least popular vice president of all time’
Rogan is not Harris’ biggest fan.
During an interview with cultural commentator Michael Malice in July, he was brutal in his assessment of the Democratic presidential candidate.
“Everybody forever was, like, ‘Kamala Harris is the worse vice president, she’s the least popular vice president of all time’,“ he said
“And then in a moment in time, all of a sudden she’s our solution, she’s our hero, everybody’s with her,” he added, claiming it was impossible to find a negative story about her on Google.
Rogan predicted Harris would win the election, but not of her own merit.
“I feel like we are in this very bizarre time where people are giving in to the bulls–t in a way that I never suspected people would before,” Rogan argued.
“They just want no Trump, no matter what.”
He later praised Harris for her debate performance in September, saying: “Whoever’s coaching her, whoever’s the puppet master running the strings, is doing an amazing f***ing job.”
Rogan is no supporter of Trump – who is also reportedly chasing an interview with him – either.
In 2022, Rogan told podcaster Lex Fridman that he’s “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form”.
“I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once - I’ve said no every time. I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him,” Rogan added.
In a more recent interview in September this year, he defended Trump, saying: “Everyone’s saying he’s going to be a dictator. Well, he wasn’t a dictator.”
“He was the president. He actually was the president for four years and the economy really did well and he really did try to cut some of the bulls*** that’s going on in this country.”
