Fox News 2023 Year In Review with Bill Hemmer
2023 was another turbulent year, marked by political dysfunction at home and two major world conflicts. America’s Newsroom anchor Bill Hemmer looks back at the top headlines of the past 12 months.
Podcast giant Joe Rogan had fiery hot-takes and comical jokes with famous guests about many of the year’s most memorable stories.
Rogan’s "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast on Spotify has become one of America’s most popular talk shows in the past few years, where millions of Americans go to hear from interesting guests and for Rogan's commentary on some of America’s most controversial political issues.
Rogan and the fight over "fascist" fitness
Rogan’s guest, writer and stand-up comedian Bridget Phetasy recalled multiple articles warning that fitness is being associated with extreme right ideology.
Rogan jokes with his guests on an episode of his podcast. (Spotify)
MSNBC OPINION ARTICLE RIDICULED FOR WARNING ABOUT ‘FASCIST FITNESS’
Rogan agreed and observed, "There's a giant percentage of our population that is really lazy and fat, and if you want those people on your team you have to say, 'There's nothing wrong with being lazy and fat, in fact; not being lazy and fat is actually connected to misogyny, racism, and fascism, and the far right' - so people are like, 'Great, let's just eat donuts and just f***ing vote blue.'"
Rogan hammers Target and Bud Light
One of the year’s biggest stories was beer brand Bud Light making commemorative beer cans for transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, sparking consumer backlash and losing billions of market value. Target faced similar backlash after it rolled out its annual Pride Month displays in May and customers found "tuck-friendly" women’s swimsuits for transgender people as well as items marketed towards children and infants.
Rogan recalled "the Bud Light thing with Dylan Mulvaney, they’ve lost $20+ billion," and asked, "Can you imagine, you’re just gonna send a f------ can to a confused person - that ‘Day 365 of womanhood’ - and you send that person a f------ can with their face on it and your company loses $20 billion?" He later observed "So we’re seeing that now where we never saw that before, where people are going ‘Enough! Enough! Stop shoving this down everyone's throat."
Rogan vs. Maher on Trump vs. Biden
Liberal talk show host Bill Maher has made numerous headlines in recent years for criticizing fellow Democrats over their excesses in "woke" ideology, and criticized Biden for refusing to address this problem. "He doesn't want to fight that wing of his party. He can't afford to have a battle on the left. So that's my big issue with him. I know you have others," Maher said. When Rogan retorted by saying his major critique of Biden is dishonesty, Maher scoffed, arguing Trump is worse.
Joe Rogan and Bill Maher clashed over whether President Biden or former President Trump was worse on "The Joe Rogan Experience." (Screenshots/The Joe Rogan Experience)
Rogan said Biden and Trump "both lie" but asserted the current president is "mentally compromised." He went on to argue that while Trump may be flawed, "there's something wrong with Biden. Like he makes up words, he stumbles through things, It seems like he doesn't know where he is half the time."
When the conversation shifted to each presidential candidate’s health, Maher conceded, "I'll give you this point. Trump looks a lot and sounds a lot more hearty and robust and healthy. That's true. He's a city roach… the worse things he eats, the stronger he gets. You cannot kill him."
Rogan praises Trump for ‘perfect’ answer on Ukraine
Since the war in Ukraine began, the conflict has been geopolitically complex and strategically hazardous. A Russia-friendly president of Ukraine was ousted in an American-backed coup in 2014. Since then, Russia, a nuclear power, launched an illegal invasion of Ukraine, and both countries’ history of corruption and human rights violations have made headlines in international news. Rogan praised Trump for his calls for peace in a CNN Town Hall when he had been asked whether he wants Ukraine or Russia to win the war, he answered, "I want everybody to stop dying. They're dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying."
Rogan described Trump’s answer as "perfect" and mocked CNN for trying to make a "gotcha" moment "out of a subject that literally has the fate of the world in front of it," noting the possibility of nuclear war as people are "flippantly supporting this continued conflict with no talk at all about some sort of a compromise."
Rogan doesn't hold back on gender ideology
In March, activists criticized news outlets for misgendering a school shooter who targeted children at a school in Nashville. Rogan scoffed at the controversy, "First of all, that person's dead, okay? It doesn't matter if you call it a boy or a girl, that's a dead person who killed three children and three adults in a horrific way."
Rogan’s guest, journalist and author Michael Shellenberger, recalled a previous episode highlighting how confusion around sex and gender is a symptom of declining civilizations.
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Rogan credited commentator Douglas Murray for his talks on the subject, "It seems like every civilization when they're at the brink of collapse becomes obsessed with gender, and [Murray] talked about Ancient Greece, in ancient Rome, and it just seems like a thing that people do when there's no real physical conflict, so people look for conflict that doesn't exist, and they find conflict in standard norms, they find conflict in societal norms."
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