Joe Rogan is breaking his silence on Jimmy Kimmel‘s suspension, slamming conservatives who are celebrating the attack on free speech.
The podcaster, who endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2025 presidential election, explained on a new episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, that his delayed response to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! news was due to being on a mountain trip with limited internet service.
He then went on to say, “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved ever in dictating what a comedian can or cannot say in a monologue. That’s fucking crazy.”
While ABC announced on Monday that Kimmel’s show would be returning to broadcast Tuesday night, the network initially suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week after a comment the host made during his Sept. 15 episode drew heat online, including from FCC chair Brendan Carr. During Kimmel’s remark in question, he said, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Rogan continued in response, “The problem is the companies, if they’re being pressured by the government, so if that’s real and if people on the right are like, ‘Yeah, go get ’em.’ Oh my God, you are crazy. You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you.”
Trump was among some Republicans celebrating Kimmel’s brief suspension from the air, while other politicians and Hollywood notables condemned ABC’s decision, calling it an attack on free speech.
As for Kimmel’s return (though his show will remain dark in some parts of the U.S. due to Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar deciding to preempt the show), Rogan said, “All this does is help him. It makes his show bigger. There’s much more support. I’m sure there’s a lot of hate as well, which is not fun. But at the end of the day, if the show comes back … he comes back to a standing ovation. Donald Trump tweets mean shit about him and then the world moves on.”
The podcaster also slammed Trump for constantly writing on Truth Social about his dislike for late night talk show hosts. “I think that is also fucking insane. I don’t have time to do that. How do you have time to do that? How do you have time while you’re running the world to be tweeting that you don’t like talk show hosts?” Rogan questioned. “That is so crazy.”
