Joe Rogan talked “a bunch” of comics into going to Donald Trump’s White House fight, he revealed on Wednesday.
According to the host of The Joe Rogan Experience, several of his comedian buddies considered skipping Trump’s UFC spectacle—until he intervened.
“I talked a bunch of people into going that didn’t want to,” he said. “Shane Gillis was thinking about not going. I’m like, bro, you got to go. It’s going to be epic. It’s going to be a once-ever thing. Not a once-in-a-lifetime, once in anybody’s lifetime. It’s never happened before. It’s probably never going to happen again.”
Gillis, the comedian who was fired before his Saturday Night Live debut for using a slur against Asian people, attended the fight on Sunday, June 14, though his appearance, as well as that of MAGA comedian and Rogan acolyte Tony Hinchcliffe, drew less scrutiny than America’s top-selling comic Nate Bargatze.
The previously apolitical comedian has been hit with a barrage of messages from disappointed anti-Trump fans, despite a source claiming to the Daily Beast that his attendance was “not political.”
Rogan, who posed for a photo with Bargatze on Sunday night, said the same on Wednesday. “So many people are trying to make it a partisan thing. They’re mad at people for being there. Like, ‘Oh, you support Trump.’ It’s a f---ing fight at the White House,” he scoffed. “Doesn’t mean you endorse foreign policy. Like, shut the f--- up.”
The podcaster said watching UFC fighters Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria face off “was amazing” and “one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Rogan did not mention the most shocking part of the night, when fighter Josh Hokit called former first lady Michelle Obama a vile slur from the ring as Rogan interviewed him.
“Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” said Hokit, 28, after defeating his opponent.
According to CNN, Trump “appeared to show a half-smile.” The slur was never formally addressed by the White House.
Of the entertainers in attendance, only Gillis has said publicly that he “didn’t love” the comments. Bargatze’s rep did not respond when asked if he had any statement to share about the slur.
