Joe Rogan Slams ‘Crazy’ Change to Trump Press Briefings

Joe Rogan has a new gripe with the Trump administration.

Rogan was chatting with Oscar-winner Billy Bob Thornton on Thursday episode’s of The Joe Rogan Experience when he called out a “crazy” change that the president he endorsed has made to the daily press briefings.

“I think there’s a lawsuit right now to make the Trump administration bring sign language people back to those White House press briefings,” Rogan said. After his producer looked it up, Rogan questioned if there was any other time that sign language interpreters weren’t included in the briefings.

“No, it says they stopped during the Trump administration,” Rogan was told, to which he responded, “Oh, that’s crazy… why would they take that out? Why would you remove sign language?”

He went on, “That’s one thing that’s happened over the last couple decades, is they actually do, when there’s important information, they always have a signer there.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt takes questions during a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House. Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

The White House has indeed been embroiled in a legal battle with the National Association of the Deaf, which sued the administration for the omission. The Trump administration fired ASL interpreters in January.

The Association argued that the decision violates the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, resulting in discrimination by an “executive agency.”

On Tuesday of this week, a judge ordered through temporary injunction that the administration immediately begin including interpreters in its briefings. Trump’s not wanting to “share a platform,” as the judge put it, was not reason enough to halt the previously established common practice under Joe Biden.

U.S. President Joe Biden signs "I love you," in American sign language as he greets advocates and members of the disabled community following an event honoring the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Rehabilitation Act (Rehab Act), at the White House on October 02, 2023. — U.S. President Joe Biden signs “I love you,” in American sign language as he greets advocates and members of the disabled community following an event honoring the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Rehabilitation Act (Rehab Act), at the White House on Oct. 2, 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

“Given the nature of the programming at issue here—regularly scheduled briefings on critical topics implicating markets, medicine, militaries, and myriads of other issues—the court finds that denying deaf Americans access to and the benefit of it presents a clear, present, and imminent harm,” the judge declared in the ruling.

Rogan expressed his support for that position, though he admitted he hadn’t noticed the interpreters much before. “I never saw it like at speeches or anything like that, but yeah, it’s important,” he said.

“I’ve had them on comedy shows sometimes. Like if you perform at some theater and there’s some sort of a mandatory requirement for a sign language person. There’s someone that has to keep up with the jokes and explain sarcasm while you’re in the middle” of a joke, he said. “It’s very weird.”

Thornton added, “It’s a hard job,” before they moved on to other subjects.

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