John Fetterman explains Democrats’ Joe Rogan problem

Democrats have a Joe Rogan problem, says Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.
The Democratic lawmaker appeared on one of the country’s most popular podcasts and argued his colleagues would benefit from doing the same.
Fetterman spoke to Semafor’s David Weigel, who asked, “You went on Joe Rogan’s podcast; Kamala Harris never did. In 2019, Bernie Sanders got some criticism from liberals for going on that show, and for doing Fox News, and since the election I’ve seen some re-thinking about that — about criticizing Sanders. What sort of media interviews are Democrats not doing, that they should be doing?”
Fetterman:
I’ve always been a fan of the Rogan podcast, and of him personally. That doesn’t mean that I have to agree with him on everything, but it’s all about having conversations and having an exchange of ideas. I think he really pioneered that whole medium, and I think it’s important for all of us, especially for elected leaders, to challenge your own views and to expose yourself [to others]. He has created an incredibly impressive platform, and it would be pretty dumb to ignore that or to pretend it doesn’t exist.
So, I was happy to show up there. And it also addresses an important kind of an issue, in my opinion, with the Democratic Party. We have a challenge. We have our own kind of “childless cat ladies” situation: “Bros.” People refer to these young guys as bros, and clearly that’s not a positive term. They’re described as dopes, or gullible, or brutes. People were really shocked when the whole childless cat ladies thing dropped, and it is dumb. That violates the basic, basic rule of politics. Don’t subtract, do addition. I think that was part of the new coalition that really delivered a pretty crushing victory for Trump.
Rogan endorsed Donald Trump after the president-elect appeared on his podcast last month.
The podcaster is known for his hours-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is listed as No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts.
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Matt Arco may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.