‘SubwayTakes’ Cut Kamala Harris Interview Because Her Opinion Was Too Weird

In the post-mortem on former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, many errors with the Democratic strategy have been identified. The love for fracking. The warmongering. The cozying up to the billionaire class. An emphasis on celebrity endorsements at the expense of clearly communicated policy plans to improve the lives of working people. A campaign mottled by the likely-senile Joe Biden. The bucket of screw-ups runs deep. 

But something that the Pod Save America fellas missed in their hindsight assessment of the Democratic Party’s commitment to failure was an interview with Harris that never actually made it to the internet. In an interview that’s now gone viral on TikTok with Steven Bertoni for Forbes, Kareem Rahma — the creator and host of the popular social media show SubwayTakes — revealed that there’s an unaired episode featuring Harris. It was so bad and so weird that Rahma feared at the time that he would be blamed if Harris lost the election. 

“What happened with Kamala?” Bertoni asked Rahma. 

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

The entire idea was presented by the DNC — both Tim Walz and Harris wanted to film episodes of SubwayTakes as part of their digital campaign. It was ostensibly a smart move; SubwayTakes has over 1.2 million followers on Instagram, and a million on TikTok. Clips regularly go viral. It’s a great way to reach a lot of young people on the internet. But Rahma explained that the episode with Harris never aired. “I got lucky, because I didn’t want to be blamed for her losing,” Rahma said. 

“It was that bad?” Bertoni asked. 

“It was really, really bad and it was… It didn’t make any sense, I can tell you that,” Rahma replied. 

The controversial take in question? “It was ‘bacon is a spice.’ Bacon is a spice,” Rahma explained. 

What does that mean? It’s really anyone’s guess, as we don’t — and likely never will — have the footage of the full conversation. But for the record, 100 percent disagree. Bacon is not a spice. It’s a meat that can be used as a topping but not a seasoning. Duh. 

“Do you think that was her opinion, or do you think she got like a research group to try and figure something out,” Bertoni asked in a longer version of the clip. 

“Research group, because originally the take that I was pitched was great,” Rahma replied. “It was that she does not like to take her shoes off on airplanes.” 

That’s fun! Normal, just controversial enough to merit debate, but something that will bring people together in conversation. Agree or disagree, that’s a take people can understand. Instead, Harris arrived with the hard to parse, disappointing, ultra uninspiring and kind of embarrassing take few people would relate to. 

You know what? Maybe the Pod Save America guys already did have this conversation.