'Hot Ones' Turned Down a Kamala Harris Appearance During 2024 Campaign, Her Staff Reveals
Vice President Kamala Harris' 2024 presidential campaign tried to get her on the popular YouTube show Hot Ones, but the request was denied by the show. Her campaign staff revealed as much during a recent episode of the podcast Pod Save America.
Stephanie Cutter, who handled media strategy for Harris, said Hot Ones turned them down because the show doesn't do politics. "They didn't want to take us or [Donald Trump]," Cutter explained.
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Hot Ones is a YouTube series where host Sean Evans interviews celebrities as they eat increasingly spicy chicken wings. It has featured stars like Gordon Ramsay and Sabrina Carpenter, but it has never hosted a political candidate in its nearly 10 years of episodes.
Harris' team hoped appearances on non-political platforms would connect her with younger voters, but they faced challenges booking those kinds of media, as The Daily Beast reported. Cutter said they received similar rejections from other entertainment outlets, unlike Trump, who successfully appeared on several shows.
Former campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon said Trump didn't seem to have the same problem. "He was able to tap into some cultural elements in ways that we couldn't," she said.
Harris also didn't appear on The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the world's most popular podcasts. Cutter said the campaign wanted to go on the show and offered to visit Rogan's Austin studio while Harris was in Texas. However, they couldn't make it work because Trump was taping his episode on the same day. Rogan has said Harris' team had an open invitation to appear on his podcast but didn't follow through.
Trump's campaign made stops at many popular outlets, including Rogan, This Past Weekend with Theo Von, and Kick streamer Adin Rose's show. Harris' efforts didn't gain the same traction. For example, her appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast got just shy of a million views, while Trump's Rogan episode garnered over 50 million.
Despite the challenges, Cutter said the missed opportunities likely didn't affect the election outcome. At this time, Neither Hot Ones nor Rogan's team have yet commented in response.
