Democratic strategist and media expert Lis Smith told former Obama adviser Tommy Vietor on a podcast Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris’ episode on “Call Her Daddy” failed due to it focusing too heavily on policies.
Smith said the party needs to find people who can have a normal conversation.
During her campaign, Harris was repeatedly called out for avoiding the press in the early stages of her run and later faced backlash for giving vague responses when asked about her flip-flopping on left-wing policies and her policy platform. On “Pod Save America,” Vietor questioned Smith about the downfall of corporate media’s influence over voters, asking if Democrats should seek platforms like YouTube to build their own ecosystem.
“So we can build our own ecosystem — I think that’s part of it. But when I hear people say we need our own Joe Rogan, I want to be like, ‘What the hell, man?’ It’s so clear you have never listened to Joe Rogan. It’s not a political show,” Smith said. “So one I think it’s a problem that people on our side [who] don’t listen to Joe Rogan don’t understand that sort of sphere, right? They think that, ‘OK, we need someone on the left.’ It’s not a political show. What I think we need is people who can go on shows like Joe Rogan.”
“That means people can have actual conversations, and sometimes I think this is a challenge or challenge, especially for older politicians. Donald Trump is a little bit of an anomaly, but they’re so used to talking and like talking points and, and policies that it’s hard for them just to go on and chop it up and have a normal conversation,” Smith added.
Smith continued, stating that Harris missed an opportunity when joining podcaster Alex Cooper on her show. The video, which notably is only seven minutes of the 44-minute long interview, only racked up 896,000 views on YouTube. In comparison, Cooper’s other full length interviews over the years with ex-porn star Mia Khalifa, Playboy Bunny Holly Madison and TikToker Madison Lewis have each garnered over a million views.
“I thought that was a little bit of a missed opportunity with Kamala Harris when she went on ‘Call Her Daddy’ is that it was so policy focused,” Smith said. “It’s like, it should have been more what the usual programming of ‘Call Her Daddy’ is. Obviously you’re going to tame it down a little bit. So you’re not going to be asking her a lot of the questions that Alex Cooper asks her guests.”
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“If you look at the demographics of who is on, of who listens to Rogan, right? It is very diverse, very diverse ideologically. It’s about a third, a third, a third — Republican, Democrat, independent. Very racially diverse and it’s a lot of young men,” Smith said. “These are people who will basically do everything in their power, not to have to listen to MSNBC, consume political news.”
The Democratic strategist went on to highlight how those informed by podcasts, such as “The Joe Rogan Experience,” avoid corporate media, noting that the party needs to fill its ranks with candidates who don’t just hit political talking points.
“So like, this is the only way you’re going to reach them. Why on earth are we not trying to reach them there? But to do it and do it effectively, we need candidates who can go on [and] have those conversations. To me it speaks to the need for younger, fresher, more normal voices,” Smith said. “People who can go beyond just policy talking points.”
Following Harris’ appearance with Cooper, President-elect Donald Trump had joined podcaster Joe Rogan on his show just over a week before Election Day. The interview, which has racked up 51 million views since its drop, showed the two discussing Trump’s plans and previous experience within his first term for nearly three hours.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/”Pod Save America”)
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