Joe Rogan calls out Bill Maher

Joe Rogan has taken aim at fellow comedian Bill Maher, calling him a “heretic” over his political stance.

During a July 4 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, podcaster Rogan and his guest, comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore, criticized the media and the ways in which they felt the news had influenced public opinion.

“People still think Russiagate’s real,” Dore said, in reference to Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Donald Trump and his supporters often refer to the Mueller investigation as “Russiagate” or a “collusion hoax,” although the investigation did not exonerate the former president from claims that he colluded with the Russian government.

“Look at people like Bill Maher,” Dore continued in his discussion with Rogan. “That was shocking to me. I’m like, oh I thought he just hated Trump. But it’s like…”

“He doesn’t even know what the WEF [World Economic Forum] is all about,” Rogan interjected.

“Did you see Roseanne [Barr] had to tell him?” Dore asked. “He didn’t even know what MK-Ultra was. And then he got the balls and tell Bill Burr, ‘This isn’t your lane.’ It’s not your lane either, Bill you don’t know f****** anything.”

“That’s crazy,” Rogan repeatedly said in response, before adding that comedian Burr “chewed him up” during one of their recent podcast conversations.

Newsweek has contacted a representative of Maher via email for comment.

While speaking with comedian and avowed Trump supporter Barr on his Club Random podcast in December, Barr told the host that he was under a mind-control program called “MK-Ultra,” prompting him to ask what it was.

Top-secret CIA Project MK-Ultra were experiments intended to assess the potential use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and other drugs for mind control and information gathering during the height of the Cold War. The program used various methods including giving psychoactive drugs to unwitting subjects.

Running from the 1950s until it was shut down in 1973, the MK-Ultra program has subsequently made appearances in various conspiracy theories about high-profile assassinations and illicit government activity, according to the academic text Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia.

Elsewhere during Rogan’s recent podcast episode, the former Fear Factor host compared celebrities who continue to support President Joe Biden to a cult.

“These people are deranged,” he said. “These people are no different than the Manson family in that they are in a cult. They’re locked into this ideology. It’s not as bad as the Manson family, but it’s clearly a cult. It’s an ideological cult where you’re not willing to go against any of the doctrines of the cult.”

“You have to practice group think,” Dore agreed.

“Bill Maher is a heretic, even though he’s like he’s very much a liberal,” Rogan charged. “He’s a heretic because—”

“Because every once in a while he’ll tell the truth,” Dore cut in.

“A lot of times, he’s just he’s not as informed as I’d like him to be about some of the stuff, like MK-Ultra the WEF,” Rogan said. “I don’t know what he knows about Ukraine but he hates Donald Trump. I couldn’t figure it out on the podcast. He wouldn’t even, like, have a rational discussion as to why he hates him. ‘He’s crazy.’ But the thing I found out that he was sued by Donald Trump. That’s probably it.”

Back in 2013, Trump sued Maher after the comedian suggestively joked on HBO‘s Real Time with Bill Maher that the onetime real estate mogul’s true father was an orangutan. Later appearing on NBC‘s The Tonight Show, Maher said he would give $5 million to charity if Trump could prove his father was not an orangutan, echoing Trump’s offer for former President Barack Obama to release his college records.

Trump responded by sharing a copy of his birth certificate alongside a statement from his lawyer who said it demonstrated “that he is the son of Fred Trump, not an orangutan.” Once Maher didn’t hand over the $5 million, Trump sued him for breach of contract. Trump eventually withdrew the lawsuit.

In an interview with Newsweek in March, Maher said that while he wasn’t thrilled with a presidential showdown between Trump and Biden this November, he was steadfast in his decision over who he would be backing.

“I’ve said this many times: If it is Trump and Biden, I would vote for Biden’s head in a jar of blue liquid versus Donald Trump,” he declared. “That’s why I tried for a while, as many people did, to convince Joe that you did a great job, but you know, bridge president is sort of what we were promised. But that didn’t happen and it’s not gonna happen. So you know. I’m all in with Joe.”