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Podcaster Scrapped ‘Weird’ Harris Interview To Dodge Dem Wrath

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Kamala Harris
Photo Credit: "Kamala Harris" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/?ref=openverse.

TikTok comedian Kareem Rahma is shedding new light on a failed interview with then-presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, revealing the exchange was so awkward he worried that releasing it might cost her the election.

Speaking to Forbes editor Steven Bertoni, Rahma said the interview, originally intended for his viral series Subway Takes, was derailed from the start by what he called “painful” missteps.

“It was so complicated because I’m Muslim and there’s something going on in the world that 100 percent of Muslims care about,” Rahma told The New York Times. “And then they made it worse by talking about anchovies. Boring!”

Rahma traveled to Pittsburgh ahead of the 2024 election to interview Harris, expecting a candid, offbeat discussion suited for his subway show, where guests give humorous or controversial “takes” on hot-button issues.

According to Rahma, Harris’ team originally approved a topic that had nothing to do with politics: whether people should take off their shoes on airplanes.

But when cameras rolled, the vice president went rogue. “Bacon is a spice,” Harris said unexpectedly.

Rahma, who avoids pork for religious reasons, was stunned. The vice president pressed on. “Think about it, it’s pure flavor,” she argued, listing dishes that benefit from bacon bits.

Trying to redirect, Rahma asked for a different take. Harris pivoted to a new food opinion: her love of anchovies on pizza. But the damage was done.

“Her take was really confusing and weird and not good. And so we mutually agreed that we shouldn’t publish it,” Rahma said.

“And I got lucky because I didn’t want to be blamed for her losing.”

Rahma explained he believed the “take” had been selected by a research group trying to sanitize Harris’ image.

“At the last minute I think a research group said, ‘This makes you look rich and snobby and you need to appeal to the American people.’ So she went with the bacon.”

Even when Rahma attempted to hit pause and reconsider the segment mid-filming, Harris’ campaign team overruled him.

“First they rode the bacon. Then they overrode the bacon. Then I tried to override their override,” he said, describing the confusion.

“Then they were like, ‘This makes her look —’ And I said, ‘Whose fault is that?'”

The interview was eventually scrapped, and Rahma walked away with nothing more than a photo with Harris.

This wasn’t Harris’ only interview misstep that drew internal panic from her team.

During an appearance on The View just weeks before the 2024 election, Harris froze when asked what she would do differently than President Biden.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind. I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact,” Harris commented.

The blunder, which was caught on live television, reportedly set off chaos backstage.

According to the authors of 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, top aides scrambled to salvage the segment.

Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter allegedly approached co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Ana Navarro during a commercial, begging them to repeat the question so Harris could deliver the rehearsed response.

Campaign official Rob Flaherty was seen putting his head in his hands in frustration backstage as the segment continued, and another adviser would eventually call the moment as “the defining error of the campaign.”

Even The View host Sunny Hostin, who posed the question, later said she regretted the query due to how badly Harris fumbled.

“I knew it instantly when she answered it,” Hostin said on Behind the Table, the show’s companion podcast.

“Which is why I asked the follow-up question — ‘is there one thing?’ — because I knew, I could see the soundbite and I knew what was going to happen.”

“I thought it was a really fair question, and I thought it was a question that she would expect,” she added. “I feel terrible that I took down the Democratic Party.”

In a different excerpt from the book, Harris reportedly swore at Democratic governors who were wavering in their support of Biden after his disastrous debate with Trump last year.

As many of them were “deeply skeptical that Biden could continue his campaign” during the damage control meetings he held after his performance, Harris reportedly told the state lawmakers to get in line because the then-president’s campaign was “about saving our f***ing democracy.”

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