Former Vice President Kamala Harris' interview on a popular TikTok podcast before the 2024 election in which she declared "bacon is a spice" was deemed so "confusing" and "weird" that the host and the campaign mutually agreed not to run it.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, sat down for separate interviews with Kareem Rahma, host of "Subway Takes," where guests admit their favorite hot take. Although Walz's interview ran, Rahma told Forbes on Monday that Harris' interview was pulled.
"Her take was really confusing and weird and not good, and so, [we] mutually agreed we shouldn't publish it," Rahma told Forbes reporter Steven Bertoni in an interview posted on TikTok, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
"And I got lucky because I didn't want to be blamed for her losing," Rahma said.
"Her take was that bad?" Bertoni said.
"It was really, really bad, and it was like, it didn't make any sense," Rahma said.
Rahma, a Muslim, initially wanted to talk to Harris about Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip following Iranian-backed Hamas' terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, perhaps at the end of the show, The New York Times reported in a lengthy profile of Rahma on Nov. 4, a day before the election. But Harris' staff and the Democratic National Committee rejected the idea.
He said he had been told that Harris would be taking a stand against people removing their shoes on airplanes. But during the interview, he said Harris surprised him with a different take: "Bacon is a spice." Two senior campaign officials told the Times the topic of bacon had been raised in advance. Rahma and his manager disputed this.
Rahma, who doesn't eat pork for religious reasons, was taken aback.
"I don't know," he said in the unpublished video recording of the interview, his voice rising to an unusually high pitch, according to the Times.
Harris elaborated that bits of cooked bacon can be used to enhance a meal like any other seasoning. "Think about it, it's pure flavor," she said.
Rahma asked Harris whether he can use beef or turkey, and what kinds of dishes would benefit from bacon. He then paused the interview and told her that he doesn't eat bacon. He asked if they could do the airplane take instead. But, on the advice of a staffer, Harris decided to declare her love of anchovies on pizza — an alternative the campaign had floated earlier in an email, the Times reported. Rahma wrapped up the discussion a minute later.
"Well," he said, with an awkward laugh. "I'm 100% unsure on both of those."
The Walz interview, in which the governor deplored the national decline of home gutter maintenance, went more smoothly, the Times reported. Afterward, Rahma told the Times, he felt unsure of what to make of the Harris interview. He had been apprehensive about potential criticism from other Muslims, and the bacon talk had thrown him off.
"It was so complicated because I'm Muslim, and there's something going on in the world that 100% of Muslims care about," he told the Times. "And then they made it worse by talking about anchovies. Boring!"
The campaign apologized for the bacon take and proposed a reshoot, the Times reported. But after publishing the Walz interview, Rahma decided not to move forward with it.
Newsmax reached out to Harris for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.