Recently, former “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe was applauded for his handling of a CNN interview about his position on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “shortlist” of possible vice president picks. This week, news broke that Rowe was a potential selection along with other names such as New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, and more.
On Thursday, Rowe appeared on CNN’s “Outfront,” where host Erin Burnett questioned him on the news. However, it quickly became apparent that Burnett was looking to approach the conversation from a political angle to address some of Kennedy’s views and the other possible selections on his shortlist. Rowe has been applauded for his conduct during the interview, where he refused to take the bait, taking the interview as a “class act.”
Journalist Gregory Latham Jr. shared a clip of the interview to X, with the caption, “I have to say that Mike Rowe is a real class act. @CNN tried desperately to drag him into childish divisive discourse, and he stayed above it. He handled this interview like a real adult, and that’s not something you see very much these days in US politics.”
Rowe was highly complimentary of RFK Jr. and his team, noting his pleasant experience being interviewed. “Well, he’s very gracious. And he’s very smart. And he’s very direct. And I had no idea of what I was really walking into but his his team was there. And they were also super inquisitive. They, they listened more than they talked. I wound up interviewing him. He interviewed me. We had a few laughs. It was a very friendly, very casual conversation, but he’s serious,” he said.
Rowe continued describing RFK Jr.’s intense conviction in tackling some of America’s most pressing issues of the age. “And when he talks about the things he’s serious about, he leans in, and it’s hard not to listen, he’s serious about the debt. He doesn’t want to see 34 trillion get to 50. He believes if it does, the country can’t service it, party’s over. He’s serious about ending forever wars. He’s serious about waging a war really on chronic disease and diabetes and things like that,” he continued.
The CNN host then prodded Rowe on some of Kennedy’s more hotly debated stances, such as vaccines and pandemic-related issues. When asked if those were issues discussed during his meeting with RFK Jr., he answered, “Not really, because that stuff has been so talked to death in the media that he’s everybody kind of knows. All right. This is the wrap.”
However, Rowe added that although some of those topics were discussed, he didn’t feel at liberty to discuss specific details with her. “Honestly, Erin. Yeah, we did talk about some of that stuff. And I don’t know that it’s fair for me to really walk you through a chapter and verse,” he said.
At another point during the interview, Rowe downplayed a question from Burnett regarding qualifications for RFK Jr.’s VP list. “You’d probably find stupid stuff that anybody has said. But what really qualifies a man or woman to run for president or vice president, I think you got to be 35. I think you need to have been born in this country. After that, I don’t know about qualifications. I guess we could talk experience and judgment and temperament and all of those other things and everybody gets to weigh and measure everybody and put it all under a microscope and decide,” Rowe added.
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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