Joe Rogan has it in for Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, whom he ripped on Friday for not delivering bombshell revelations about Jeffrey Epstein as “promised.”
“I think the cynical perspective is that at the highest levels, it’s all being controlled by money and that’s not going to change,” Rogan said on the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, released Friday. “Kash came on the podcast and said, ‘There’s nothing that you want to see,’” regarding Epstein. “Dan Bongino, who’s always shouting from the rooftops, ‘We’re going to get to the bottom of this and find out who these people are,’” but now, “Everyone’s saying ‘No, Epstein killed himself. No, nothing to see here,’” he went on.
“That’s why people are cynical. People are cynical because you had all this hope for change, and then you realize, ‘Oh the same people that are pulling the strings are still pulling the strings.’”
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Rogan is one of several MAGA voices to turn on Trump or his administration over the DOJ’s closing of the alleged sex trafficker’s case. Far-right conspiracy theorists presumed that celebrities and Democratic lawmakers would be on Epstein’s supposed “client list”—an idea that activated Trump’s base and MAGA officials stoked for more support.
The president’s subsequent U-turn on the case after taking office infuriated many of his supporters, whom he has called “stupid” and “weak” for their continued interest. Patel and Bongino were tasked with investigating the case that mattered most to MAGA conservatives, but fell short when it came time to deliver the goods.
Bongino fanned the flames of the theory that notables were connected to Epstein’s dealings, telling his podcast listeners, just months before becoming deputy FBI director, that there was “extremely credible” evidence of “a multitude of tapes” depicting Epstein with well-known associates committing child abuse. Attorney General Pam Bondi made the same claim in May, saying that the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn.”
“Why’d they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s--t? Why’d they say that?” Rogan asked on his podcast Tuesday, reacting to the closing of the case by the DOJ.
Patel appeared on Rogan’s podcast in June, giving Rogan the opportunity to grill him about the case, and the night Epstein died. As his answers didn’t seem to satisfy the host, Patel told an exasperated Rogan he’d never “participate in hiding information about Epstein’s grotesque activities.” He insisted that he was “working his a-- off” to release the information that “we’re allowed to give you.”
During the same interview, Elon Musk made the bombshell claim that Trump was in the Epstein files, which both Rogan and Patel reacted to in real-time. “How does he know?” Rogan asked, “Does he know that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files? Does he have access to the Epstein files?”
“I don’t know how he would,” Patel responded, saying the conflict was “way outside” Musk’s “lane.”
The Patel interview took place just weeks before the FBI would release video footage from the night of Epstein’s death. Rogan questioned why the video wasn’t “released immediately,” and Patel seemingly blamed former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr. The wide-ranging interview yielded no new revelations, and Patel concluded, “We will never be able to convince everyone” there isn’t a conspiracy.
Rogan dismissed the idea that Trump’s many photo ops with Epstein suggest he may be implicated in the unreleased information, telling his guest Friday that Epstein was also photographed “hanging around with everybody else, including Nobel Prize-winning scientists.” He opted instead for yet another conspiracy theory to explain Trump’s shortcoming on the case—that a “compromise organization” is “controlling” him.
“Whatever that compromise organization was, whatever that thing was that they were running, whatever this game was… I’m sure they’re running another version of it right now, where they provide experiences to people that have a very difficult time getting out there and having their fun, and then they compromise them,” he said, echoing one aspect of the QAnon conspiracy. “This is a time-honored tactic of control. It’s been around forever. And obviously, it works.”
This is the only explanation, Rogan argues, since “You have so much interest in getting to the bottom of” who Epstein supplied victims to, “universally on both sides of the aisle, and yet nothing gets done.”
