On June 6, 2025, during his "New Rules" segment on Real Time with Bill Maher, comedian and host Bill Maher criticized Democrats for their strategy of seeking "their own Joe Rogan" to counter Republican influence in media, particularly after the 2024 election loss.
Maher pointed out the irony that Joe Rogan, a prominent podcaster, was once aligned with liberal values, having endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2020, but shifted to endorsing Donald Trump in 2024. He argued that instead of trying to create a new liberal equivalent of Rogan, Democrats should reflect on why they alienated him in the first place.
Maher highlighted attempts by the left to "cancel" Rogan, such as backlash over his podcast content, and compared it to the treatment of Elon Musk, who also moved away from liberalism after facing criticism, like when some Saturday Night Live cast members reportedly snubbed Musk during his 2021 hosting stint for being wealthy.
Maher suggested these actions pushed figures like Rogan and Musk toward the right, not because their core beliefs changed drastically, but due to the left’s “bad attitudes and bad ideas.” He noted a 2022 post by Musk on X, where Musk shared a chart indicating the Democratic Party had shifted too far left, leaving centrists like himself behind. Rogan echoed this, stating Democrats’ leftward shift labeled him a conservative despite his largely unchanged views.
Maher urged Democrats to focus on winning back “guys in America like Joe and Elon” by addressing the cultural and ideological missteps that drove them away, emphasizing that this is possible without pandering to extremism. He framed the political pendulum as swinging due to one side pushing their agenda too far, driving voters to the opposite side not out of agreement but frustration.
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