Buttigieg admits there won't be a ‘Rogan of the left,' says Dems need their own way to reach common Americans
The former Biden official made the point on Friday's "The Weekly Show with John Stewart Podcast." Buttigieg discussed with the host how Democrats could better get their message out to voters following the 2024 presidential election loss.
"My party's all up in arms about who's our Joe Rogan. We're not going to have a Joe Rogan of the left. That's not how it works," he said.
Theo Von Attends Trump's 'Inspiring' Inauguration, Declares It's 'Time To Put America First'
Stewart agreed with the statement, offering his view that the party can't just produce at will a top global podcast that will amplify liberal thought.
"It's also not something you can conjure in the way that – they just think, 'Oh, let's inorganically build this thing.' Those positions have been built over time, and they've earned their credibility, and they've earned their authenticity, and they've earned all those things that they have. You can't just poof them into existence," the Comedy Central host stated.
Read On The Fox News App
Buttigieg offered this assessment of his fellow Democrats: "The other big thing that my party is terribly behind on is where we say it. And by this I mean what media spaces we are in."
"The Joe Rogan Experience" is one of the world's most influential podcasts and has a massive audience of male viewers – a demographic that was considered crucial to President Donald Trump's 2024 election victory.
Joe Rogan Calls Out Liberals For Insisting Musk Used Nazi Salute: 'Bulls--- Game'
Bloomberg reported in January, "Over the past two years, a set of massively popular podcasters and streamers cemented themselves as the new mainstream source of information for millions of young men, and, according to a new Bloomberg analysis, used their perch to rally these constituents in support of Trump and the political right."
Trump's own interview with the podcast giant in the final weeks of his campaign drew tens of millions of viewers. The conversation and Rogan's ultimate endorsement of Trump's candidacy were seen as a boon for Trump.
Even the Democratic Party knew the importance of Rogan's platform, looking to get former Vice President Kamala Harris on his show before Election Day. Those plans fell through, though the former Democratic presidential candidate appeared on other prominent podcasts like "Call Her Daddy" before the end of the race.
Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture
Despite some of the party's desire to replicate Trump's success with Rogan, Buttigieg told Stewart it needs to focus on its own original strategy of finding new voters, including going into more conservative spaces.
"I think we are really struggling to find people where they are," Buttigieg said.
"I could be the tenth person to say roughly the same thing on a liberal show, or I could literally be the first time somebody heard a certain idea if I'm in a more conservative space," he added, noting the party should be reaching out to people who are "not always looking for politics."
"People who have other s--- to do!" Stewart said. "Yeah," Buttigieg replied.Original article source: Buttigieg admits there won't be a 'Rogan of the left,' says Dems need their own way to reach common Americans
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
16 minutes ago
- Axios
Blue-collar revenge: The things AI can't do are making a comeback
AI is supposed to displace millions of workers in the coming years — but when your toilet won't flush at 2 am, you're not going to call ChatGPT. Why it matters: The reshaping of the American economy promises to offer a kind of revenge for the blue-collar laborer, as white-collar workers become largely dispensable, but the need for skilled trades only grows. The big picture: Companies are already boasting of saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year by using AI instead of humans. The stock market rewards are too enticing for the C-suite to ignore. But ask those same executives who's going to run the wiring for their data centers, or who's putting the roof on the building, and just how well those skilled technicians are getting paid. It's become a key Trump administration economic talking point: Blue-collar wages are rising faster now than at the start of any other administration going back to Nixon. Driving the news: A recent Microsoft paper analyzing the most "AI-proof" jobs generated a list of the work most and least vulnerable to the rise of the LLM. The 40 most-vulnerable jobs (translators, historians, sales reps, etc), basically all office work, employ about 11 million people. The 40 least-vulnerable jobs (dredge operators, roofers, etc.), just about all manual labor, employ around 5.5 million. All those extra folks have to go somewhere. What they're saying: "We've been telling kids for 15 years to code. 'Learn to code!' we said. Yeah, well, AI's coming for the coders. They're not coming for the welders. They're not coming for the plumbers. They're not coming for the steamfitters or the pipe fitters or the HVACs. They're not coming for the electricians," Mike Rowe, the TV host and skilled-trades philanthropist, said at Sen. Dave McCormick's (R-Pa.) AI summit last month. "There is a clear and present freak-out going on right now," Rowe said, as everyone from politicians to CEOs recognizes just how bad they need tradespeople to keep the economy running. Yes, but: While the AI boom will create lots of jobs for skilled trades, eventually there'll be less demand to build more data centers, which may in turns sap demand for those tradespeople too. The intrigue: There's already a labor shortage in many of these blue-collar professions, one that AI will, ironically, only make worse (think the electricians for the data centers, for example). Factories alone are short about 450,000 people a month, per the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). "We're really talking about high-tech, 21st Century, rewarding, well-paying jobs," Jay Timmons, the CEO of the NAM, tells Axios. "Manufacturers are really embracing what's coming, and they accept the responsibility." Training is the answer, but that will require a large-scale, national effort —not just for up-and-coming students, but for mid-career folks forced into a pivot. "Everybody needs these roles, they're high-security roles," says Carolyn Lee, president of the NAM-affiliated Manufacturing Institute. She points, for example, to a program already in 16 states to train maintenance technicians to keep factories running — precisely the kind of job people like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have said are the future of the workforce. Students in an early cohort of that program, on average, were earning $95,000 a year within five years of graduating. One of the challenges, Timmons notes, is selling that to people who may not understand how lucrative these careers can be: "You have an economy-wide perception problem."
Axios
16 minutes ago
- Axios
Voting Rights Act's 60th anniversary comes amid uncertainty
Barriers that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed to eliminate have reappeared in modern forms as the country marks its 60th anniversary. The big picture: A backlash to the 2020 racial reckoning has made it almost impossible for any bipartisan effort to renew the Voting Rights Act — even though the country is more racially and ethnically diverse than ever. The big picture: President Trump continues to push baseless claims about voter fraud while pressuring states like Texas to redraw congressional district boundaries with little consideration to historic racial discrimination. In March, Trump signed an executive order to tighten voting restrictions — including calls for proof of citizenship to vote. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE), a Republican-led bill that would codify those requirements into law, passed the House in April but stalled in the Senate. Meanwhile, GOP-leaning states also have passed bills in recent years that critics argue impose new restrictions on Black and Indigenous voters. The latest: Earlier this week, Sen. Raphael Warnock reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, backed by Senate leaders and civil rights groups. The bill would restore federal oversight of voting changes in states with histories of discrimination — and ban voter roll purges for missed elections. Multiple groups promoted its introduction to Congress, but it's unlikely to pass either of the GOP-controlled chambers. What they're saying:"We're going to continue to fight for that bill, even though it's an uphill climb — particularly because of the Senate filibuster," National Urban League president Marc Morial told Axios. Morial says every Republican president since its passage has signed every extension, but now it's a partisan issue fueled by far-right movements. "This is a modern-day power grab." The other side: Some Republicans contend that the voting changes are "common sense" reforms to require ID and prevent noncitizens from voting — which is exceptionally rare and illegal. U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Axios earlier this year that voting rights groups' concerns about such changes were "absurd armchair speculation." Yes, but: Older Black Americans, especially in the South, are being disproportionately targeted by new documentation requirements, Color Of Change PAC national director Jamarr Brown told Axios. That's because rural, poor areas like the "Black Belt" of Alabama and Mississippi lack the infrastructure to get voters the required documents in a timely and easy fashion. Arizona and Montana have passed new laws barring ballot collection important to Native American voters living in isolated regions, since they lack reliable mail service. "This isn't about proof of citizenship. This is about eliminating people from the electorate… to get a desired political outcome," Brown said. Between the lines: Since taking office, Trump has attempted to reverse many of the gains made during the Civil Rights Movement and unravel the late President Lyndon B. Johnson's civil rights legacy from six decades ago. The clawback on voting rights comes as the Trump administration also pulls back on civil rights enforcement and focuses on " anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color. The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday released new guidelines for recipients of federal funding and directed them not to be involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") programs. Flashback: Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act on Aug. 6, 1965, after the attack on unarmed peaceful demonstrators in Selma, Ala. Johnson had encouraged the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to march for voting rights to sway the public. Stunning stat: Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the number of Black Americans elected in the U.S. has shot up from just a few in 1964 to about 9,000. Most Black Americans are aligned with the Democratic Party, but Black and Latino Republicans have won high-profile races in Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico and California. The bottom line: Voter suppression efforts now target Latinos, Asian Americans, and young voters, alongside Black communities.
Axios
16 minutes ago
- Axios
Beijing's hackers are playing the long game
Chinese hackers are targeting more sensitive U.S. targets than ever — not to smash and grab, but to bide their time. Why it matters: Beijing is investing in stealthy, persistent access to U.S. systems — quietly building up its abilities to disrupt everything from federal agencies to water utilities in the event of escalation with Washington. Even the most routine spying campaign could leave China with backdoors to destruction for years to come. Driving the news: At least three China-based hacking groups exploited vulnerable SharePoint servers in the last month, according to Microsoft. Researchers at Eye Security, which first discovered the SharePoint flaws, estimates that more than 400 systems were compromised as part of the SharePoint attacks. In this case, hackers also stole machine keys. That means the attackers can regain access whenever they want — even after the system is patched — unless admins take rare manual steps to rotate keys. The big picture: China's state-linked hackers have been growing in sophistication over the last few years as they focus more on targeting technology and software providers with hundreds of customers, often including government agencies. By the numbers: More than 330 cyberattacks last year were linked to China, double the total from 2023, according to CrowdStrike data shared with the Washington Post. Those numbers continued to climb in early 2025, according to CrowdStrike. Between the lines: At least three major Chinese government teams have been targeting U.S. networks in recent years. Volt Typhoon has focused on breaking into endpoint detection tools to burrow deep into U.S. critical infrastructure, including pipelines, railways, ports and water utilities. Their goal is to maintain persistent access and be prepared to launch destructive attacks in the event of contingencies such as a war over Taiwan, experts say. Salt Typhoon, known for its compromises of global telecom networks, has focused on traditional espionage and spying. This group tapped cell phones belonging to President Trump, Vice President Vance and other top government officials. The FBI believes that threat is now "largely contained." Silk Typhoon — which has been linked to a recent breach of the U.S. Treasury Department and is known for the global 2021 Microsoft Exchange hacks — has been ramping up its work in recent months. The group uses previously undetected vulnerabilities, known as zero-days, to break into networks. Zoom in: Researchers at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne have uncovered more than 10 patents tied to Silk Typhoon's work — a rarity among nation-state hackers. The patents — detailed in a report published Thursday — suggest the group was at one point developing new offensive tools, including to encrypt endpoint data recovery, conduct phone and router forensics and decrypt hard drives. The researchers also found that Silk Typhoon has links to at least three private sector companies. The intrigue: Beijing's growing reliance on private contractors adds another layer of complexity — shielding state involvement while expanding capability. A DOJ indictment released last month details how the Shanghai State Security Bureau directed employees at tech companies to hack into computers across U.S. universities and businesses to steal information. A trove of leaked documents stolen from private Chinese contractor I-Soon early last year also highlighted how hired hackers targeted several U.S. government agencies, major newspapers and research universities. State of play: China's growing cyber prowess comes as the Trump administration has diminished resources for its own cyber defenses. At least a third of the workforce at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has left through voluntary buyouts, early retirements or layoffs. The Trump administration also wants to cut its budget. Yes, but: The administration is expected to invest heavily in its own offensive cyber powers — with $1 billion from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" heading to the Pentagon for just that purpose.
