CNN tried to explain away former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss last November to President Donald Trump as the consequence of the “new establishment” in an interview with comedian Tim Dillon — only to be completely rebuffed and brought back to reality.
The outlet uploaded their interview with Dillon to YouTube Tuesday, where news correspondent Elle Reeve asked him about a number of topics ranging from work in comedy to the Trump administration and controversy surrounding the Department of Government Efficiency chair Elon Musk.
One moment featured prominently in the 71 minutes the two spoke was when Reeve asked Dillon about his role as part of the aforementioned “new establishment.”
“Do you feel you’re part of a new establishment that’s being created?” Reeve asked.
The inference here seems to be that Dillon and other comedians and podcasters, like Theo Von and Joe Rogan, played such a major role in the election that when these individuals put support behind Trump — or just interviewed him for millions to see — it arguably shifted voter support and contributed to Harris’ defeat.
The question sounded fair, if we consider that Rogan‘s interview with Trump has been viewed 58 million times on YouTube alone (not counting other platforms like X or Spotify) and if we completely forget how bad of a candidate Harris was.
Dillon reminded Reeve.
CNN asks Tim Dillon if comedians with podcasts are “part of a new establishment” and gets immediately destroyed 🤣 pic.twitter.com/oh3W1nI5Oc
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) May 19, 2025
Do you ever watch CNN?
“I don’t think I’m part of a new establishment,” he told her. “This was a very specific circumstance in which Kamala Harris ran for the presidency. She was somewhat unpopular, and she was not a star in Democrat politics before this — at all.”
“To hang this defeat all on a few podcasts and to say that they were the problem, I just don’t buy the narratives,” Dillon explained.
“If you weigh a few comedians with podcasts verse all of the people that supported Kamala Harris — you know Democrat donors, billionaires, big people — if the idea is that me and a few comedians have more power than multibillionaires, huge media institutions, a whole political party apparatus, I just don’t think most people are going to buy that,” he said, completely rejecting the CNN correspondent’s talking point.
After agreeing with Reeve that these comedians did pull a massive audience, Dillon reminded her that this sway only went so far against the countless institutions trying their best to oppose Trump.
“There’s absolutely power in a massive audience, but if you’re saying that that power is equal to the CIA or all of these other people that have been very critical of President Trump, right? So the idea that the power that Theo Von has would be equal to the intelligence agencies or these massive legacy media institutions seems crazy,” Dillon added.
Dillon clarified that these people don’t have the institutional competent needed to meet the establishment criteria Reeve required to explain away Harris’ loss.
Let’s not forget Harris did make podcast appearances, as well — for example, when she went on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy.”
To believe what Reeve is saying here is to completely ignore Harris’ ineptitude as a candidate.
She deserves all the credit for tanking her own campaign from displaying a lack of charisma, spouting constant word salads, and having a lack of clarity regarding policy positions.
Dillon is right. A bunch of comedians did not cause the Democrats to lose.
They did that on their own.
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