Joe Rogan last week tried to drag CNN into a wild conspiracy theory related to the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July—but the network wasn’t having any of it.
In the Feb. 28 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience featuring Elon Musk, Rogan questioned why CNN carried the rally live—suggesting that the network knew about the assassination attempt prior to it happening. He also falsely asserted that the network did not air any other Trump campaign rally live.
“I do not believe they [CNN] did for any other rally, and certainly not for a rally that’s in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania. There’s a lot of weird s-–t,” Rogan said, as Musk agreed that “it makes no sense.”
The conspiracy theory quickly gained traction in right-wing spaces. Conservative billionaire Bill Ackman went on X to ask: “What are the chances CNN was tipped off to stream the Butler rally? Why isn’t this worthy of an investigation? It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who orders the coverage and why.”
But CNN wasn’t going to let the speculation run wild.
“CNN provided live coverage of President Trump’s Butler, PA rally in anticipation of news about his pick for Vice President,” the network said in an X post by its communications team. “Any suggestion contrary to that fact is completely false.”
In a wide-ranging discussion with Musk, Rogan also wondered out loud why “everyone stopped asking questions” about the Pennsylvania assassination attempt.
“There was never a formal report,” Rogan said. “There was never press conferences where they detailed all the information we know currently and where the investigation stands at the moment.”
The House created a bipartisan task force to probe the failures that led to the assassination attempts on Trump on July 13 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 15 in Florida. It released its 180-page final report in December.
The report stated that “various failures in planning, execution, and leadership” helped create “an environment in which the former President—and everyone at the campaign event—were exposed to grave danger.”
