Why Kamala Harris Didn’t Go on Hot Ones or Joe Rogan

The leaders of the Harris-Walz campaign went on Pod Save America to talk about the pods that did not save America. Or pod and food-themed YouTube show, whatever. Jen O’Malley Dillon, David Plouffe, Quentin Fulks, and Stephanie Cutter unpacked the coconut campaign with Dan Pfeiffer and discussed Hot Ones passing on Kamala Harris, and the scheduling snafu that kept her off The Joe Rogan Experience.

Pfeiffer asked the Harris staffers why we never saw Harris do the last dab. “Like there never in time has there been a candidate better suited for a podcast than Kamala Harris on Hot Ones,” he said. Cutter said, as she recalled, “that they didn’t wanna delve into politics.” Arguably, turning away from politics is an inherently political act, but whatever. In August 2024, Sean Evans told Vulture that it’s “been kind of quiet” as far as campaigns reaching out to be on the show, but that he’d be “down to moderate a debate, Hot Ones–style.”

The Harris-Walz team also addressed not going on Joe Rogan. As Rogan told it, the campaign only offered him 40 minutes in New York instead of the 2+ hours in Austin to which he is accustomed. “It’s pretty simple. We wanted to do it,” Cutter said. “So, we had discussions with Joe Rogan’s team. They were great. They wanted us to come on. We wanted to come on. We tried to get a date to make it work, and ultimately we just weren’t able to find a date.” Instead of going on Rogan, Harris went to Houston to appear at a rally with Beyoncé. “As it turns out, that was the day that Trump was taping his Joe Rogan,” Cutter said. “But it, you know, didn’t ultimately impact the outcome one way or the other. But she was willing to do whatever it takes.”

• [pod save america]

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