Joe Rogan attacks Jacinda Ardern, after anti-vaxxers ambush her press conference
The NZ PM was forced to end a press conference after it was ambushed by anti-vaxxers. Rogan says this was proof politicians had “too much power”.
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Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan has taken aim at New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern criticising her handling of a press conference which was interrupted by anti-vaxxers posing as journalists.
In a video uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, Rogan, 54, mocked Ms Ardern, imitating her accent and criticising her refusal to answer the questions posed by the protesters.
“Have you seen that lady who’s running New Zealand,” he said.
“If she even gets asked questions at press conferences, if people yell out questions she goes: ‘We’re going to shut this down, we’re going to shut this down if you keep yelling out’,” he said in an apparent attempt at a New Zealand accent. “She just leaves, she’s like ‘accredited press only’.”
Continuing, Rogan said it was a sign politicians have too much control.
“They have ultimate power now,” he said. “They have the power to shut down businesses, keep people in their homes.”
“It’s not as simple as protecting people, they also have power.”
On Tuesday, Ms Ardern was forced to cut short a media briefing on the country’s vaccine roll out, when a man, who has since been identified as Shane Chafin, began interjecting. He was joined by a woman who also heckled the Prime Minister.
“Why is the vaccine not working in Israel? And you are still pushing it,” he said.
The man’s comments was in reference to Israel’s continued battle with the Delta variant after its seven-day average hit 964, despite the country being 63 per cent full-inoculated. In comparison Australia’s population is 67 per cent full vaccinated.
Ms Ardern said she would only be answering questions from the “accredited media” and moved the press conference to another area.
In his video, Rogan criticised Ms Ardern for failing to explain why cases in Israel have increased.
“You’re yelling about this vaccine program, you want everybody to be vaccinated, tell us about what you know about how it’s failing in Israel,” he said.
Although Rogan doesn’t claim to be an anti-vaxxer, he said that “healthy” young people don’t need to worry about the virus.
“If you’re, like, 21-years-old, and you say to me, ‘Should I get vaccinated?’ I’ll go ‘No’,” he said in April this year. “If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time and you’re young and you’re eating well, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”
Earlier this week, the comedian dubbed Australia a “dystopian, police-state,” after his name was used in a comedy sketch on the ABC program Gruen about vaccination hesitancy.
“Not only has Australia had the worst reaction to the pandemic with dystopian, police-state measures that are truly inconceivable to the rest of the civilised world, but they also have the absolute dumbest propaganda,” he wrote, referencing the 36-second Gruen clip.
Realising his mistake later, he changed his caption to read: “EDIT: apparently this is not a real ad. It’s from a satirical show.”
Originally published as Joe Rogan attacks Jacinda Ardern, after anti-vaxxers ambush her press conference
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