Comedian Andrew Schulz recently told The Daily Beast that “of course” having Donald Trump on his podcast last year furthered Schulz’s reputation of being “a right-wing MAGA lunatic,” even though he says that couldn’t be further from the truth. Schulz invited Trump onto the “Flagrant” podcast in early October, about a month before Election Day. The episode has 9.4 million views to date.
“I did wrestle with it,” Schulz said about whether or not to have Trump as a podcast guest. “I understood by doing it I’m politicizing myself. Politics is ugly, bro, it just fucking sucks.”
Schulz added that it does not bother him if people make him out to be some kind of “MAGA lunatic” just because he had Trump on his podcast. The comedian said interviewing Trump was not an endorsement and “I don’t believe in endorsing candidates. I’m a comedian. And I didn’t want to go to the inauguration either. They were very kind to invite me, but it wasn’t for me.”
“What I’ve realized is, you’ve gotta have empathy for how people see you based on the way that we consume information,” Schulz said. “You can’t be angry that people didn’t do an eight hour deep dive and find out exactly how nuanced you are and like what your thought process is. I grew up in a fucking dance family and an arts family in New York City. Do you really think I’ve been right-wing my entire life? No, I’ve been a Democrat my entire life.”
Schulz also does not believe that having Trump on his podcast impacted the election, although “it wouldn’t bother me” if people thought that it did.
“Not at all. But I don’t think that we did,” Schulz said. “I think that America had made their mind up, and I think that a lot of people assumed that the vote for Trump was because he’s this populist superstar that everybody loves and they’re obsessed with. And I think what they’re not calculating is, there are a lot of people that were unhappy with the status quo and they were voting to reject the current administration, which seemingly was saying that they weren’t going to make any changes.”
Having Trump as an interview guest become a controversial topic in the weeks leading up to the election. Marc Maron notably posted a blog post in which he called out “comedians with podcasts” who “joke around” with “shameless, self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists on their show,” saying, “All it does is humanize and normalize fascism.” Maron did not name podcasters like Schulz or Joe Rogan, both of which had Trump on as a guest before Election Day, but it was clear who he was talking about.
“Even though I do not do a political show I have been very clear in my specials and on the podcast that I believe, and have believed for years, what is brewing in this country is an American fascist movement rooted half in grievance and half in Jesus and enabled by tech oligarchs and an inundation of propaganda from many sources,” Maron wrote at the time. “Well, it’s fully percolated and pouring into the minds of all of us. It is shameless and proud. Culturally, the combination of blatant racist fear mongering and the anti-woke movement has delivered their message for the future. A future that marginalizes almost all voices.”
Head over to The Daily Beast’s website to read more from Schulz’s interview.
