Rod Blagojevich sheds light on legal negotiations with Barack Obama for Senate seat on Joe Rogan's podcast: "He was trying to make a deal"

Episode #2245 of The Joe Rogan Experience saw the popular podcaster speak to former Ilinois governor Rod Blagojevich. As they conversed, they touched on former United States President, Barack Obama allegedly negotiating with Blagojevich about his Senate seat pick.

This led to an exhausting ordeal for Blagojevich, who was eventually impeached and removed from office before getting arrested. He served an 8-year prison sentence on corruption charges for allegedly attempting to sell the Senate seat left vacant by Obama following his 2008 U.S. presidential victory.

"Obama just wanted to make a political deal. But what happened was they criminalized it against me and Obama wasn't trying to force it, he was trying to make a deal to persuade me to do it."

When asked what benefit he would have received from said deal, Blagojevich said the following, astonishing the longtime UFC commentator:

"That's what we discussed for six weeks that the FBI was talking about. We discussed all kinds of crazy ideas, a lot of good ideas. Spent two days talking about the possibility of appointing Oprah Winfrey."

Check out Joe Rogan and Rod Blagojevich talking about his deal with Barack Obama (12:20):

While Blagojevich was initially sentenced to a 14-year sentence, he only served 8 after an appeal for his conviction led to then U.S. President Donald Trump commuting his sentence. Thereafter, he became an active Trump supporter, even attending the Republican National Convention for Trump's 2024 campaign.

It is a significant U-turn from Blagojevich, who was once a member of the Democratic Party.

---

Joe Rogan has interviewed a variety of politicians as of late

Besides Rod Blagojevich, Joe Rogan has also interviewed U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and his selected vice president J.D. Vance. The comedian interviewed Trump on episode #2219, while Vance was interviewed on episode #2221.

Check out Joe Rogan's recent interview of J.D. Vance:

Rogan was even scheduled to interview Kamala Harris. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party's 2024 presidential candidate opted against appearing on the podcast, for which she received criticism.