Former President Donald Trump has issued a statement offering advice for Joe Rogan.
In a short statement about the controversy, Trump urged the podcaster to stop apologizing so that he does not look "weak and frightened."
"Joe Rogan is an interesting and popular guy, but he’s got to stop apologizing to the Fake News and Radical Left maniacs and lunatics. How many ways can you say you’re sorry? Joe, just go about what you do so well and don’t let them make you look weak and frightened. That’s not you and it never will be!" Trump wrote in the statement, released through his Save America PAC. Great Advice For Joe Rogan From President Trump pic.twitter.com/4udd4zmZr3
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 8, 2022
Spotify, which has an exclusive deal to host The Joe Rogan Experience on their platform, was initially facing pressure from the left to censor the wildly popular show over some of his guests that have had different opinions about the pandemic than the mainstream media narrative.
On Saturday, the calls for censorship escalated when singer India Arie shared a compilation of Rogan using the n-word on the podcast, though it does not show the context of his use, which was primarily him quoting other people.
Rogan posted a video on his Instagram account addressing the controversy. He apologized for using the word and promised to include a more balanced view of the coronavirus and the vaccines.
"I don't want to just show the contrary opinion to what the narrative is," Rogan said. "I want to show all kinds of opinions so that we can all figure out what's going on, and not just about COVID, about everything, about health, about fitness, wellness, the state of the world itself."
Regarding his prior use of the n-word, he said “I know that to most people there’s no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast and I agree with that now. I haven’t said it in years. It’s not my word to use, I’m well aware of that now.”
Rogan added, “I never used it to be racist because I’m not racist.”
India Arie, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and several other musicians have pulled their songs from Spotify in protest of their hosting of the podcast.
Last week, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defended keeping Joe Rogan on the platform during a heated town hall meeting with upset employees.
During a question and answer portion of the company meeting, employees pushed back on the lack of censorship, asking about things like "how employees’ work to advance diversity within the company can reckon with some Rogan comments."
Ek told the employees that the solution is not to get rid of Rogan's podcast, but perhaps to obtain more exclusive content from different perspectives.
"The real thing here is to try to go for an even broader set of exclusives that represent even more voices," Ek said."There are many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive. But let me go back to what I said earlier, if you want even a shot at achieving our bold ambitions, it will mean having content on Spotify that many of us may not be proud to be associated with," he continued. "Not anything goes, but there will be opinions, ideas, and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us angry or sad."
He pointed out that there have been episodes of the podcast that did not make it onto the platform because they violated the rules.
