Kamala Harris’ media struggles throughout the 2024 election were well-documented, but now it seems like we may not have even seen the worst of it.
While the former vice president did not embrace ‘new’ media (read: podcasts, social media, etc.) the way her opponent Donald Trump did, she made at least one appearance that never saw the light of day. Social media personality Kareem Rahma is shedding new light on the interview he did with Harris last year that was so “weird” and “not good” they mutually agreed not to release it.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Mark Halperin, host of MK Media’s Next Up with Mark Halperin, to discuss Rahma’s revelation and why it only further confirms Harris was a flawed candidate.
Kamala Gets Cut
Rahma is the creator of the popular Subway Takes series in which he asks commuters and the occasional celebrity for their “takes” on things. In November, he told The New York Times that he filmed an interview with Harris in the summer of 2024 that was left on the cutting room floor. And now he is offering some additional insight into why it wasn’t usable.
“Her take was really confusing and weird – not good,” Rahma told Forbes’ Steven Bertoni. “[We] mutually agreed to not publish it. And I got lucky because I didn’t want to be blamed for her losing.”
“Her take was that bad,” Bertoni asked.
“It was really, really bad,” Rahma responded. “It didn’t make any sense.”
According to Rahma, the Harris team had originally pitched taking a stand against people removing their shoes on airplanes as her hot take. But once the filming started, the vice president went in a different direction, declaring: “Bacon as a spice.”
Rahma, who is Muslim and doesn’t eat pork, had an almost concerned look on his face when he recalled the moment to Bertoni. When the reporter suggested the bacon answer may have been provided by a “research group,” Rahma agreed. “Originally, the take that I was pitched was great,” he recalled. “And then, at the last minute, I think research group said, ‘This makes you look rich and snobby and you need to appeal to the American people.’ So she went with a bacon.”
Rahma said he tried to redirect the conversation in the moment to no avail. “I tried to pause the interview and say, ‘Trust me, we shouldn’t do a bacon thing,’ and I was overrided by this guy who was maybe her deputy campaign manager,” he said. “An hour later, I got a call that said, ‘We can’t do bacon.’ But then I tried to cut it into something else, and I did make it work. And then they were like, ‘This makes her look…’ And I said, ‘Whose fault is that?'”
What It Shows
The story, Halperin said, illustrates so much of what was wrong with the Harris campaign. “I bet you there are a lot more stories about this because, as we saw throughout the campaign… they were afraid to put her in situations,” he said. “Somebody says to Trump, ‘Go do [Joe] Rogan or go do [Andrew Schulz]’ and Trump would be like, ‘Yeah, let’s go. I’ll stay for four hours.’ Her team is like, ‘What is the size the table going to be? What temperature will the water be? What questions will you ask? Can we edit it?'”
As Halperin explained, Harris’ team spent so much time agonizing over “all these hyper-controlling things” because she left them no choice. “People say… ‘If she hadn’t been such a great candidate, she couldn’t have turned things around in 90 days,'” he noted. “She is not a good candidate. She didn’t perform as a good candidate. And [her campaign] knew that because they had to negotiate… all these hyper-controlling things only to have her spend time doing a podcast so bad it can’t be aired.”
Megyn agreed. “She can’t make her own argument,” she noted. “She is so inept at it that they have to cut it out of Subway Takes a fun, lighthearted show where you are supposed to just go on and show that you can be a fun person.”
Now, Megyn said “her only goal in life” is to see the raw footage. And if that doesn’t happen, she already has a plan B. “Maybe it will be my next parody,” she quipped. “Mark, you can play the podcaster and I’ll play Kamala Harris.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Halperin by tuning in to episode 1,104 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.