Aaron Rodgers has reiterated that he did not intend to imply that Jimmy Kimmel would be on the list of Jeffrey Epstein associates.
The 40-year-old Jets quarterback returned to the “Joe Rogan Experience” this week and was asked why he brought up Kimmel in connection with the list.
Rodgers explained that Kimmel had mocked him after he deadpanned on “The Pat McAfee Show” that government UFO disclosures might be a distraction for the upcoming release of a list of rich and powerful people accused of participating in Epstein’s infamous underage sex trafficking ring.
“He had gone on his show and called me a tinfoil-hat-wearing doofus who is talking about the … I thought he had said that I was an idiot for even thinking that there’s a list out there,” Rodgers said.
Rogan asked, “So when you were saying that he doesn’t want that list to come out, you weren’t saying that he was on that list?”
Rodgers answered, “No!”
Rogan said that a lot of people saw the interaction “out of context” and thought that was what Rodgers meant.
“Nobody watched the f–king clip. That’s why. They just saw a headline and [were like] ‘oh it’s the anti-vax guy again, let’s hammer him,’” Rodgers said.
When Rodgers made the comment, it ignited a firestorm inside ESPN, which airs McAfee’s show and is under the Disney umbrella with ABC, where Kimmel hosts his late-night talk program.
Mike Foss, the ESPN executive who oversees McAfee’s Show, said, “Aaron made a dumb and factually inaccurate joke about Jimmy Kimmel. It should never have happened. We all realized that in the moment.”
In an appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience”, Aaron Rodgers insisted he was taken out of context during the infamous Jimmy Kimmel-Jeffrey Epstein ordeal. Joe Rogan Experience
On the podcast this week, Rogan said that he himself had seen the clip out of context and thought that Rodgers was implying Kimmel would on it.
“A lot of celebrities are on that list,” Rogan said.
“The list hasn’t been released yet,” Rodgers said. “There was like one text from one victim. There’s 100 victims. Nobody’s gone to jail. Ghislaine Maxwell was charged and in jail for trafficking to … nobody? I said this when I went back on [McAfee’s] show. That’s a big f–king accusation that I wouldn’t make. I said, ‘Jimmy, I’m glad you’re not on the list.’”
Rodgers nonetheless felt that Kimmel should keep the “same energy” for what happened with Epstein as the disdain he had for people who were skeptical of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Jimmy Kimmel speaks at the 2021 Media Access Awards on November 17, 2021. Getty Images for Easterseals
“All I’m asking is, let’s have the same energy for you talking about the vax — and people, if you’re not vaxed, being left to die — about these people on the list, because it’s f–ked up,” Rodgers said.
“What goes on at the top [of society], and why people were going to Epstein’s island, and all the … conspiracies about whether he was Mosad, and Ghislaine and her father, and all the weird connections. I’m for all corruptions on all sides being taken down. I don’t give a f–k if you’re on the left side, the right side, whatever.”
Rogan opined, with Rodgers agreement, that Epstein’s island was an “intelligence operation” where they were compromising powerful figures and “they could use that to control all sorts of narratives and make all sorts of decisions.”
Rodgers said that Kimmel’s staff invited him on the show last summer, but that he would like to have a private conversation with the host before they talk on-air.