Petition to have Joe Rogan moderate 2020 presidential debates likely to surpass 200K signatures

Bernie Sandersappearance on the Joe Rogan Experience with host Joe Rogan earlier this month was viewed over 8.3 million times.

“This feels like the watershed moment for alternative media,” one YouTube commenter wrote. “Random mma guy joe rogan has a far better interview with a presidential candidate than any mainstream media and reaches vast amounts of people.”

“Only intended to watch the first few minutes and found myself still watching by the 30 minute mark,” wrote another. “Great platform and thank you for providing an eloquent rebuttal to the mainstream white noise. Great work by Mr. Rogan and thank you Senator Sanders.”

There were a lot of detractors as well, as some people felt Rogan didn’t challenge Sanders enough. While it may be true that Rogan’s research for interviews is sometimes lacking, there’s a huge effort underway to have him moderate the 2020 presidential debates.

This Monday morning, a petition was launched on Change.org titled, “Get Joe Rogan to Moderate the 2020 Presidential Debate,” and it collected just under 2,000 signatures. Three days later as of this writing, the petition has surpassed 177,000 signatures and it’s still climbing.

The petition lists three bullet points describing why Rogan would be an ideal choice:

1. Joe Rogan is a widely respected host who has hosted interviews with politicians, economists, scientists, and other popular figures, who come from various walks of life.

2. Joe Rogan has experience with interviewing both progressive and conservative thinkers. Figures such as Andrew Yang (D), Tulsi Gabbard (D), Kyle Kulinski (D), Gary Johnson (L), Benjamin Shapiro (R), and Candace Owens (R), have all appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” program.

3. Joe Rogan has an audience containing viewers from all areas of the political spectrum. Joe Rogan is not registered under any political party and is well-known for having civil, productive, and interesting, conversations about political issues without partisan bias.

I have my reservations, but I won’t deny that it’d be fascinating to watch.

[This article has been updated to reflect the petition’s current signatories]

Featured image via screen grab

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.