Vice President Kamala Harris’s decision to sit down with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday evening was never a good idea.
How did it go? Well, it depends on whom you ask.
The headline about the interview in the Daily Beast read, “Harris Shuts Down Bret Baier as He Plays the MAGA Hits.” On the contrary, Baier’s tough but fair questioning – and Harris’s angry, defensive, and disingenuous responses – may have “shut down” her path to the presidency.
Before the event was even over, Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey posted the following on X:
Shortly after the interview ended, David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, took to X to say it had been “an ambush,” which was absolutely false. It was merely the first time a real journalist had ever asked Harris serious questions.
It was tense from the get-go. Baier, who had traveled to Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, to speak with Harris, told colleagues afterward that the interview had been scheduled for 5 p.m. and was expected to run for about 25 to 30 minutes. Harris, he said, arrived 15 minutes late and Baier was quickly informed that she would only sit for 20 minutes.
The vice president’s demeanor throughout the brief interview was defensive, combative, and even imperious at times. Right out of the gate, we saw a return of the obnoxious remarks we recall so well from her 2020 debate with then-Vice President Mike Pence: “I’m speaking” or “I’m not finished.”
Harris dodged and weaved and filibustered. Her answers were weak, incomplete, evasive and sometimes absurd. When cornered, she always found a way to redirect the discussion back to former President Donald Trump whom she (repeatedly) claimed was unhinged, unstable, a fascist, and a threat to our democracy.
Their interaction was contentious from the start with the two often speaking over each other to make their points.
Baier began the interview by asking how many illegal immigrants the Biden-Harris administration has released into the country. She refused to answer the question. In a condescending tone, Harris said, “Bret, let’s just get to the point. We have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired.”
She told Baier that the first bill she and President Joe Biden “offered Congress … the first bill was a bill to fix our immigration system,” a talking point she recites every time she is questioned about the border crisis, perhaps her most vulnerable topic.
Baier countered that this legislation, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, was essentially an amnesty bill for 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. He noted that Democrats controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House at the time, yet Congress never brought up the bill. In fact, six Democrats opposed it.
Although Harris expressed sympathy for the families of the young women who were brutally murdered at the hands of illegal immigrants, she refused to take responsibility for allowing them into the country in the first place.
Baier asked Kamala if she still supported the radical positions she embraced during her campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. When she replied “that was five years ago,” Baier reminded her that Tim Walz, her running mate, “signed all of those things into law” as governor of Minnesota.
Baier questioned the logic behind her campaign promise to “turn the page” given that she and Biden have been running the country for nearly four years. Ridiculously, she replied, “Well first of all, turning the page from the last decade in which we’ve been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed and implemented to divide our country and have Americans literally point fingers at each other.”
He noted that 79% of Americans currently feel the country is on the wrong track. “If you’re turning the page, you’ve been in office for three and a half years.”
Harris said, “And Donald Trump has been running for office since – ”
Baier interrupted to say, “But you’ve been the person holding the office.”
Harris never failed to turn their conversation back to Trump – even when it made no sense. Following yet another round of her incessant Trump-bashing, Baier asked her when she had “first notice[d] that Joe Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished.”
She appeared stunned by the question and stubbornly refused to acknowledge the truth that had become obvious to the entire nation after Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump in June. The president was no longer fit to serve. This was the reason she had replaced him as the nominee three weeks later. Still, she would not admit there was a problem.
When Baier pressed the issue, Harris cut him off saying, “Bret, Joe Biden is not on the ballot. And Donald Trump is. …”
And on it went. By the time it was over, the stories of extremely high staff turnover both during her vice presidency and her prior service in statewide offices made complete sense. Her unlikability and deceptive nature were on full display.
The vice president has been slipping in the polls over the past couple of weeks. Although sitting for an interview with Fox was a risky move for Harris, she had hoped that a strong performance might help jumpstart her campaign and even bring back some of the joy and good vibes she had going over the summer.
Unfortunately for her, it’s unlikely that she attracted many – or even any – new supporters on Wednesday evening – and may even have driven some independent and undecided voters away.
All in all, not a good night for Harris.
The full interview can be viewed below.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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