I hope there's lessons learned in this because this is a new thing.
We had never had this before.
No one who was alive today had ever experienced a true pandemic.
And I'm hoping that now that this is over, people are going to recognize that
some serious errors were made and not repeat those.
That's the best you can get out of it.
But as far as compensation for all those people that were forced to close their
businesses and keep their doors shuttered and
lost everything that they had worked for decades to build.
No, they're just gonna be angry.
So what do you tell those people vote Republican?
>> Vote republican?
That is the advice from podcaster Joe Rogan following the Democrats
handling of the coronavirus pandemic, including the shutdowns that occurred.
And if I remember correctly Cenk,
the most strict shutdowns occurred in the beginning of the pandemic.
When, was it Joe Biden who was president in the beginning of the pandemic
in like March of 2020?
I can't remember, I can't remember.
>> And I'm pretty sure that was Donald Trump.
>> That's right, that's right, okay?
And that's that's why you should obviously vote Republican.
And to be sure, that was the context of the discussion.
They were talking about business is suffering as a result of shutdowns, and
the like now to be fair they were also talking about some of the missteps in
California, which I actually tend to agree with.
There was some overzealous action by the county board of supervisors in LA.
For instance, they banned outdoor dining, which I think was ridiculous.
I think the rule where you have to wear a mask as you're walking to your table to
eat and then you get to take it off as you're eating was also ridiculous.
But nonetheless, I think that these are annoying things that yes,
we can learn from.
But what's amazing about a man who was not financially harmed at all
by the pandemic is that he is so obsessed with it that his take is vote for
Republicans, even though republicans also did the shutdowns.
And if you look at the data, the number of deaths in Red States actually were much,
much higher.
We'll get to that in just a moment.
But one final thing I wanted to mention.
So Fetterman who of course is running for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania
is now pressuring the Biden administration to legalize marijuana federally and
to take it off the list as a schedule one drug.
That's something that Joe Rogan cares deeply about.
Ain't no Republican gonna do that.
So, curious what's more important, COVID and
the shutdowns that had no impact on you whatsoever or legalizing marijuana?
I don't know, but he thinks vote Republican.
>> Yeah.
So there's two things that come out of this story.
One is the usual about how no one's ever fair.
So, but we will be and to show you the hypocrisy of both sides,
which I'm gonna do in a second.
And the second point is Joe Rogan was always fake, talk about.
Yeah, I know, it's a lot of times on the left.
Yeah, abortion I'm worried about abortion.
Yeah.
For Republican.
Okay, that's what I thought.
Yeah.
So, all right now, why [INAUDIBLE].
So Hanna is absolutely right.
Half of what Rogan and Aaron Rodgers are saying is not controversial.
It's interesting, It's a topic that should be debated, right?
When should we have done the lockdowns?
What should we have done them for?
So, for example, looking back with the benefit of hindsight,
which we didn't have back then cuz we didn't have all the evidence back then.
I don't know that I would have shut down the schools.
And so, that's a super in interesting question and
one that could really be debated.
All the outdoor stuff was nonsense.
And we knew fairly early on that it was nonsense and
we said on the show that it was nonsense.
I talked about how people are wearing masks.
They're like 100 ft away from you.
And then I told the story of somebody yelled at me, I'm like, we're outside and
we're nowhere near each other and you're wearing a mask.
This is not a thing.
That's not science.
No scientists actually says that you can catch COVID in this circumstance, right?
So facts matter.
And one side when ballistic, even to this day,
a lot of people are still wearing masks in ridiculous situations.
I see people wearing masks inside their own car driving by themselves.
I love you guys, but what are you doing?
That's not science.
>> You can never be too safe.
>> Well, no, actually you can, it's absurd.
So on the other hand, Rogan and Aaron Rodgers totally wrong about us.
Like man government just shut down the restaurants and businesses for no reason.
What are you talking about, no reason?
What do you mean?
That's the framing that they give it right?
No, millions of people died from COVID, it was very real.
And before the vaccine, it was very dangerous.
There was good reason to shut down some things like offices working spread like
crazy, a movie theater where it could spread like crazy.
So saying that we shouldn't take any precautions is totally not so, and
is about to show you because they didn't take precautions Red States,
they literally lost hundreds of thousands of lives.
So they're dead wrong on that, okay?
So you gotta be able to judge it not based on, I hate Rogan or I like Rogan.
I like or hate the Republican or Democratic Party.
No, look at the actual facts.
Now, finally, back to Rogan's vote Republican thing.
Look guys, this is my issue with the Rogan's of the world.
They Sprinkle in some opinions from the left from time to time.
But 80% of their commentary, what you pick them, 60%, 90%,
whatever you think the percentages is, is right wing and when push comes to shove,
they take their whole audience and she put them right into the Republican hands.
And the right wing is a bunch of the Republicans are monsters.
They handle the coronavirus horribly, let alone all the monstrous things they do.
So no, I'm not interested in anyone telling me that Rogan can't like, boy,
Republican or Democrat right there electric.
I can't tell.
We just told you vote Republican.
>> In fact, had Trump handled coronavirus just a little better.
I think he would actually win the election.
Because if you look at the Swing States, which actually mattered for
the Electoral College, more than,
we all know that the Electoral college matters in the popular vote, right?
I mean, it was actually a pretty close election.
And so,
I say that because all Trump needed to do was be a little less of a failure.
Just a little less of a failure.
Maybe don't tell people to inject themselves with disinfectant as a COVID
treatment.
Maybe don't promote the use of an anti-malaria drug,
hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID when there's no evidence to show
that that's actually the case, but he couldn't help himself.
He failed and Trump wasn't the only Republican who failed the American people
during the pandemic, let's take a look at the Red States.
So despite Rogan's support for Republican policies during the pandemic,
the cumulative death rate in Red States was actually only 30% higher,
that's it, only 30%.
So an ABC news analysis of federal data found that on average the death rates in
states that voted for Trump were more than 38% higher than in states that voted for
Biden post widespread vaccine availability.
And it's because the messaging that people received from right wing
politicians on a state level, on a federal level and
right wing podcasters like Rogan was don't get vaccinated, right?
I mean, that's what we heard over and over again.
And what happened in Red States where they heard that message over and over again?
Well, we can look at that mortality gap.
I think that's a pretty informative graph that compares Democratic
counties to Republican counties.
And as you can tell, the mortality gap actually increased getting closer to 2020.
But nonetheless, let's get to this last piece of information here.
In the 10 states with the lowest vaccination rates, where between 50 and
54.5% of the total population had been fully vaccinated,
there was an average of 153 COVID-19 related deaths per 100,000 residents.
In contrast during the same time period, the states and
jurisdictions with the highest vaccination rates, which all voted for
Biden had an average of about 82.2 related deaths per 100,000 residents.
So there's the raw data right there, okay?
Per capita deaths in Red States versus Blue States.
But I'm gonna make, I guess a controversial point, which is,
I don't think Rogan cares.
I don't think any of the people complaining about how Democrats handled
coronavirus really care about deaths or hospitalizations.
They don't care, they just don't care.
They care about whether or not they're gonna be inconvenienced and
that's really what this is about period.
That's it.
>> Yeah, 100%.
I'm so glad you made that last point Hanna.
So look, people look at things from their own perspective that's relatively normal.
But if your talk show host or commentator,
you should try to be mindful of everyone's perspective and how it affects everyone.
But you'll notice that guys like Bill Maher and
Joe Rogan are obsessed with several things.
One is cancel culture.
I can't believe they're canceling comedians and not paying us enough.
And they think that's like the biggest issue in America.
Why? Cuz it affects their pocketbook.
It barely affects anyone else [INAUDIBLE] >> And they're multimillionaires and
it doesn't even affect their pockets, but their hurt,
their feelings are hurt by, right?
>> Sorry.
>> Yeah. And
they're like, I wanna be able to make any joke?
I don't like that, okay?
Is that really the biggest issue in America and right,
When does more cancel culture than left wing, but
you never talk about that because it doesn't affect you, right?
You say you're worried about abortion and other issues, but
it doesn't really affect you.
But hey, you know what?
I want to be able to take over Mecca man, okay?
But wait, look, don't you know that Donald Trump saying you should inject
yourself with bleach is the dumbest thing in the the whole wide world.
It should be immediately disqualifying if Bernie Sanders ever said anything that
stupid, I'd be like, jeez, I didn't realize he was that much of an idiot, wow,
we gotta find a new leader, right?
But Rogan goes, I don't care, I don't care what I ever met them, right?
So he's like, yeah, yeah, great, great Trump is awesome.
Vote Republicans vote Trump, right?
And so and then all those people, they're dead.
That's not, scientists didn't make that up, more guys didn't make that up,
hospitals and doctors didn't make that up.
I know in the right wing world, anything that's inconvenient,
you're like google made it up.
ABC made it up.
Every scientist in the world made it up, okay, if you want to be a lunatic,
that's your call, there's nothing I can do about that.
But Rogan doesn't care about all those dead people
cuz he wanted to be able to [INAUDIBLE] back then.
It's all about him, him, him.
>> He did though.
Like that's the thing I don't get, why I don't like how,
did any of this in any way negatively impact Joe Rogan.
I mean while he was living in LA maybe not being able to eat outdoors during
that outdoor dining ban was an inconvenience.
But bro, you're not a frontline worker who's risking your health,
you weren't economically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic cuz
you've got your own podcast studio.
And I think you have like one person working for you, I don't,
I just don't get the constant cry fest.
And then I think about the majority of Americans who have real struggles and
real things to complain about, and they're just moving on about their day,
getting it done, doing what they need to do to survive.
But you have this guy who's incredibly like he lives a charmed life and
he's like still ranting and raging over COVID restrictions.
He got to do everything he wanted to do.
He took, he took the ivermectin, enjoy, take more.
I don't care, I just don't care.
I'm so over it at this point Jesus Christ.
>> Trump had fake electors ready to go to overturn our democracy.
His supporters were chanting,
hang Mike Pence as they looked to murder his own vice president.
Trump's chief of staff said Trump, knew it and
did not mind and thought that Mike Pence deserved it.
Broken nose all this, knows that they can kill democracy.
And almost the entire Republican party now supports Donald Trump in his effort to
kill democracy, but hey, you wanna go, hey man, I want to be a little bit more free.
I want to be able to say stupid things without any consequences.
It's all about me, get out of here.
He's obviously a right wing knucklehead case closed.