Hope Walz, Gov. Tim Walz's daughter, says Joe Rogan fandom is "red flag" in her dating "litmus test"

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MINNEAPOLIS — Hope Walz, daughter of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, took a swipe at influential podcaster Joe Rogan and the men among his fanbase after the host said he supported President-elect Donald Trump due to misstatements the former Democratic vice presidential candidate made about his past.

In a video posted this weekend to her nearly 190,000 TikTok followers, the 23-year-old said a dating "litmus test" for her and her friends is whether "the guy we're talking to follows Joe Rogan on Instagram," adding that's a "red flag and we should probably stop talking to them."

"It's literally never failed us. And at this point, it's like the first thing we do when someone starts talking to a new person. If they follow [Rogan], we're like, yeah, this person probably isn't a great person, probably our values don't align. So we're gonna move on from that," Hope Walz said.

She also labeled Rogan, 57, as "questionable and unprofessional."

"I don't know how you have the largest podcast in the world and are able to just lie and put out misinformation and straight-up lies on your platform," she said.

On Monday, the X account of Rogan's podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," posted an excerpt from a HuffPost article about her video to its 1.3 million followers.

Rogan's show regularly tops the podcast chart on Spotify — which inked a nine-figure deal with him earlier this year — with more than 14 million followers, most of whom are young men from diverse political backgrounds, according to Edison Research.

Joe Rogan and Hope Walz Associated Press

Noted for his long-form interviews with a wide variety of guests, Rogan has been condemned in the past for perceived misogyny and his vocal support of several conspiracy theories.

Rogan released a three–hour interview just days before the election with Trump, who made several appearances on podcasts popular with young men in the final weeks of the campaign in the hopes of reeling in undecided voters.

Last month, Rogan issued a last-minute endorsement of Trump, which he said stemmed from his belief that Gov. Walz was a "liar," noting how the governor misstated his rank in the Minnesota National Guard and erroneously implied he had faced combat.

Rogan also touched on false claims the governor made about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In a CBS News interview with Vice President Kamala Harris in October, the governor called himself a "knucklehead" for making the claim.

"You don't care if they lied about their military rank, where they served? You don't care if they lie about Tiananmen Square? There's too many things, this is so crazy," Rogan said about Gov. Walz.

Trump has himself made a number of false statements both in and out of office. Glenn Kessler, chief writer for the Washington Post's "Fact Checker," has tracked "the sheer scale and number of his falsehoods" over the years.

"Every president lies. What is unique about Trump is that he misleads and says false things and lies about just about everything on a regular basis," Kessler told CBS News in 2020 during Trump's first term.

Hope Walz was pushed onto the world stage during the Democratic National Convention in August alongside her brother, 18-year-old Gus Walz. He went viral for his tearful and vocal displays of joy for his VP candidate father, leading to a national conversation on neurodivergence awareness.

The siblings' births were also campaign fodder, with the governor receiving another stream of scrutiny over whether his children were conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF). His wife, Gwen Walz, later clarified they used intrauterine insemination treatments (IUI).

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