Joe Rogan found out about conservative activist Charlie’s Kirk’s murder during a taping of his podcast with guest Charlie Sheen.
On the “Joe Rogan Experience” host’s new episode, which dropped on Thursday, the podcaster and the actor were interrupted by Rogan’s producer with the news, who then directed the men to X for a “crazy take” on the killing from MSNBC.
Sheen expressed disbelief that Kirk was killed for “having a different opinion,” to which Rogan responded that he “doesn’t know who did it or” what the motivation was.
That moment devolved quickly, however, with Rogan immediately calling out MSNBC before asking, “What was the take again?”
The men then watched a clip of live MSNBC coverage that questioned whether the initial gunfire was a “supporter firing their gun off in celebration,” as they had “no idea” what was going on at the time.
Rogan then declared again, “What a crazy take. F---.”
MSNBC promptly fired Matthew Dowd, the analyst who made those comments live on air. “During our breaking news coverage of the shooting of Charlie Kirk, Matthew Dowd made comments that were inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable,” MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler said in a statement. “We apologize for his statements, as has he. There is no place for violence in America, political or otherwise.”
“There’s going to be a lot of people celebrating this,” Rogan predicted later. “We’re so divided and there’s so many people that love it. They profit off that division. And they stoke the fires and they do it for their own profit and it’s so f---ing gross. And to encourage this kind of thing is really one of the most horrific things that you can do after someone dies horribly like this, is celebrate.”
Sheen, who agreed that MSNBC had tried to “spin” the shooting with the brief clip that played, asked Rogan whether Kirk was “a friend.”
“I met him once—at a gun range of all places. He was a nice guy when I met him,” Rogan said. Kirk and Rogan never made an appearance together, but Kirk’s website often heralded Rogan’s pro-Trump takes over the years and he regularly discussed Rogan positively on his Charlie Kirk Show.
“He’s not a violent guy,” Rogan said of Kirk. He’s “talking to people on college campuses. Wasn’t even particularly rude, who’s tried to be pretty reasonable with people.”
“Everything I saw seemed reasonable,” Sheen chimed in.
“Whether you agree with him or don’t, and there’s a lot of stuff that I didn’t agree with him on, that’s fine,” Rogan continued. “You’re allowed to disagree with people without celebrating the fact they got shot.” No motive has been reported and no suspect has been identified by authorities as of Thursday afternoon.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that rifle ammo with the words “transgender and antifascist ideology” were found near the university where the shooting happened, however a “senior law enforcement official” told The New York Times the report about the casings had “not been verified by ATF analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence, and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted.”
Rogan insisted Thursday that “they want to try to pin it on a Trump supporter with a crazy Trump supporter with a gun, going wacky.”
Sheen agreed with Rogan that “it’s unforgivable to spin things like that,” to which Rogan responded, “That’s what they’re paid to do, they’re paid propagandists masquerading as the news.”
“Either people are going to realize how f---ing insane this is and we have to have a conversation about being able to have conversations, or it’s going to get a lot worse,” Rogan warned. “This could spark off some kind of a real violent conflict. That guy had a lot of fans. A lot of people love that guy. And if they find out that he got killed for something that they vehemently oppose in the first place, it could send people over the edge.”
