Latest news with #KareemRahma
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
TikToker claims he scrapped 'painful' Kamala Harris interview because he would have been blamed for election loss
Comedian and TikTok star Kareem Rahma is dishing more details on why he scrapped a sought-after interview with then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris days before the election. He shared with Forbes reporter Steven Bertoni that the interview was so 'painful' that it could have resulted in her blaming him for losing the election. Rahma had traveled to Pittsburgh to meet the vice president after her team said he could interview Harris for his online show Subway Takes, a series featuring travelers on a New York City subway who had a 'take' on a specific issue. The Daily Mail reported in November that Rahma became wary of the opportunity after he was told he could not ask questions about the Israeli war in Gaza. But despite the complications with organizing the interview topics, he ultimately went forward with it. Rahma revealed in the New York Times that there was a dispute with Harris and her team about the 'take' that she was willing to share. He said he was told by staffers that Harris would be giving a 'take' on whether people should remove their shoes on airplanes. But when he sat down with Harris, Rahma said that she had a different idea. 'Bacon is a spice,' she insisted. He said he was told by staffers that Harris would be giving a 'take' on whether people should remove their shoes on airplanes. But when he sat down with Harris, Rahma said that she had a different idea. 'Bacon is a spice,' she insisted. As a Muslim, Rahma does not eat pork for religious reasons, and responded skeptically to her position. 'Think about it, it's pure flavor,' Harris continued, talking about the various different dishes that could be enhanced by bacon bits. When Rahma asked for a different take, Harris decided to declare her love of anchovies on pizza, after conferring with a staffer. Ultimately, he admitted that the interview had gone so badly that he decided not to publish it. 'It was so complicated because I'm Muslim and there's something going on in the world that 100 percent of Muslims care about,' he said. 'And then they made it worse by talking about anchovies. Boring!' Harris has revealed details about all three issues before, so his interview would not have been groundbreaking, had it been published. By contrast, Walz was still relatively unknown in August when Rahma deviated from his norm of interviewing his subjects on the NYC subway to travel and meet him on the trail. Walz's 'take' could not have come across as more Midwestern: home gutters. 'My take is the most neglected part of home ownership is the gutters,' Walz told Rahma. 'It's personal for me.' Harris' belief that 'Bacon is a spice,' meanwhile, is a take she flaunted in Iowa on the campaign trail in 2019. Her view about people removing shoes on airplanes is a take she revealed in April with the Had It or Hit It podcast and details about her love of anchovy pizza was celebrated in July as part of what fueled her process to seize the nomination after former President Joe Biden announced his decision to step down. The story illustrates a new window into Harris' closely guarded media access especially ongoing attempts to control content from social media influencers with preconditions to access. After catching a glimpse of the bizarre political world, he expressed his gratitude that he was not in the business of political media.
New York Post
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
This Kamala Harris interview was so ‘confusing and weird' that they didn't air it
Kamala Harris gave an interview before the presidential election that was so 'confusing and weird' that she and the host mutually agreed not to air it, a social media personality recently revealed. The former Democratic presidential candidate's appearance on 'Subway Takes,' a popular online series hosted by Kareem Rahma where guests admit their favorite hot take, was filmed in Summer 2024 but never saw the light of day, the presenter said.
The Sun
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
I interviewed Kamala Harris before election but it was so weird it was destroyed – I didn't want blame for election loss
KAMALA Harris gave an interview before the election that was so "confusing and weird" it was immediately deleted, according to the social media personality who hosted it. The then-Democratic nominee 's appearance on "Subway Takes", where guests admit their favourite hot take, would alone have lost her the election - so she and the host agreed to erase it. 4 4 4 Kareem Rahma, who hosts the series, has revealed he sat down with Kamala in summer last year, just months before November's election. He told Forbes in an interview posted to TikTok: "Her take was really confusing and weird, not good, and so [we] mutually agreed we shouldn't publish it." Kareem claims the Democratic Party reached out to him to say that Kamala and Tim Walz, her vice-president running partner, were "really interested" in being on the show. The presenter said he got "lucky", because he "didn't want to be blamed for her losing". Doubling down, Kareem said Kamala's take was "really, really bad, and it didn't make any sense". Finally putting viewers out of their misery, he revealed that Kamala's take was "bacon as a spice". Kareem is a Muslim, meaning he can't eat pork-based products and has never eaten bacon - making it a particularly odd choice for Kamala to go with. Kareem previously showed footage of the awkward encounter to the New York Times - which reported he was "taken aback" by Kamala's statement. The newspaper reported that she pushed on with: "Think about it, it's pure flavour." And it completely blind-sided the host. Kareem revealed back in November to the NYT that the bacon-spice was not the hot take originally pitched by Kamala's team. The democrats said she would be taking aim at people who remove their shoes on aeroplanes. So when the misplaced pork take came along, he was baffled. Two senior campaign managers for Kamala said the topic of bacon had been previously raised with Kareem as a subject for the show, the paper reported, though the host and his manager refute this. Harris's campaign reportedly apologised for the blunder and offered to re-film the episode, but Kareem declined. Kareem previously said his main reason for not airing the interview was because he didn't want to upset the Muslim community by spending air time on trivial matters when something as serious as the Israel-Hamas war was ongoing. He said: "It was so complicated because I'm Muslim and there's something going on in the world that 100% of Muslims care about. "And then they made it worse by talking about anchovies. Boring!" Whilst Kamala's interview never made it off the tape reel, Tim Walz's was posted in August 2024. He decided to talk about gutter maintenance.
New York Post
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Kamala Harris' interview on TikTok's ‘Subway Takes' was so bizarre, ‘we mutually agreed to delete it,' host reveals
Kamala Harris gave an interview before the presidential election that was so 'confusing and weird' that she and the host mutually agreed not to air it, a social media personality recently revealed. 3 Kamala Harris' interview on TikTok's viral 'Subway Takes' segment was apparently so bad they chose not to run it. Getty Images The former Democratic presidential candidate's appearance on 'Subway Takes,' a popular online series hosted by Kareem Rahma where guests are asked to admit their favorite hot take, was filmed in Summer 2024 but never saw the light of day, the presenter said. 3 The series is hosted by Kareem Rahma and guests are asked for their hottest takes on a range of topics. Instagram / @subwaytakes 'Her take was really confusing and weird, not good, and so [we] mutually agreed we shouldn't publish it,' Rahma told Forbes reporter Steven Bertoni in an interview posted on TikTok on Monday. 'Her take was that bad?' Bertoni asked. 'It was really, really bad,' Rahma replied. 'It didn't make any sense.' 3 Rahma told Forbes Harris' interview was so 'confusing and weird' they chose not to publish it. TikTok/stevebertoni Rahma offered the former vice president's take, with an almost concerned look on his face: 'Bacon as a spice.'
Fox News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
TikToker knocks Harris' 'weird' take on never released interview: 'Not good'
Former Vice President Kamala Harris offered a take so "weird" and "not good" in an interview with social media personality Kareem Rahma that they both agreed to nix airing the footage, according to Rahma. Rahma, who hosts the popular series "Subway Takes," where he asks commuters and sometimes celebrities their opinions, previously told the New York Times that he conducted an interview with Harris during the summer of 2024, but that it was never released. Rahma said in an interview clip with Forbes' Steven Bertoni posted on social media Monday that Harris' take was so "bad" he felt fortunate it didn't make the cut. "Her take was really confusing and weird – not good," Rahma told Bertoni. And 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 said. "It was really, really bad… it like, didn't make any sense," Rahma said, revealing Harris' take was "bacon as a spice." Neither Harris nor Rahma immediately responded to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Rahma, who is Muslim, told the New York Times in a story published in November 2024 that Harris' team originally proposed she would share a "hot take" against people removing their shoes on airplanes. But Harris went on to declare that bacon was a spice – a food that Rahma and other Muslims do not consume for religious reasons. The Times reported that Rahma was "taken aback" by Harris' statement. "Think about it, it's pure flavor," she said, per the unaired footage obtained by the Times. The Times' story said two senior campaign managers for Harris said the topic of bacon had been previously raised, while Rahma and his manager said that wasn't the case. Harris' campaign reportedly apologized for sharing her take on bacon and offered to re-film the episode, but Rahma declined, according to the Times. Rahma told the Times that his reasoning for not airing the interview was because he didn't want to upset the Muslim community, and that he was hoping to ask Harris questions about the Biden administration's policy regarding the Israel–Hamas war. "It was so complicated because I'm Muslim and there's something going on in the world that 100% of Muslims care about," Rahma told the Times. "And then they made it worse by talking about anchovies. Boring!" Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, also appeared on Rahma's series leading up to the 2024 election, where he discussed gutter maintenance. Walz's interview was posted in August 2024.
