Gavin Newsom’s attempt to needle Joe Rogan on live television blew up in his face this week, revealing a governor more interested in celebrity shots than serious leadership. On CNN’s new late-night program The Story Is, Newsom told host Elex Michaelson that Rogan “consistently” won’t have him on and that he’s “moving on,” even going so far as to dismiss Rogan as the “Facebook of podcasting.”
Newsom’s snide jab — suggesting Rogan is too timid or lacks the “confidence” to let California’s face of coastal elitism explain himself — landed like a cheap insult from a man who would rather televise his ego than govern. The clip shows Rogan’s own locker-room reaction, mocking the strategy and saying he’d probably have had Newsom on, but that the governor’s theatrics make people roll their eyes.
Conservative commentators and independent podcasters weren’t slow to pounce. Dave Rubin and others played the clip, weighing in with the kind of skeptical, no-nonsense skepticism hardworking Americans expect when a politician tries to stage-manage his image instead of answering real questions.
This moment exposes a truth the left doesn’t want to admit: the political class fears unscripted conversations that reach millions without filter. Newsom’s flailing attempt to shame Rogan into booking time on a podcast betrays an insecurity typical of elites who live in echo chambers and mistake volume for virtue.
Newsom also admitted on Michaelson’s program that Democrats need to win back young male voters and that podcasts are a major avenue for that outreach, which only underscores how tone-deaf his insult was. If your strategy for courting that audience is to mock and demean the platforms they trust, you deserve to lose them — and that’s exactly what Newsom risked with this little stunt.
At the end of the day, this episode reinforced why independent media matters: it holds the powerful to account without bowing to performative virtue. Conservative voices should keep pushing back on these theatrics, defend free speech and remind Americans that leadership means substance over celebrity pageantry.
