‘Rude’: Harris Sits For Discourteous Interview, But Her Team Is Happy
Fox News appearance with Bret Baier was more “debate” than conversation
The word often invoked after Vice President Kamala Harris finished her contentious interview with Fox News host Bret Baier has been “rude.”
Baier, who had been expected beforehand to offer Harris a tough-but-fair airing of her views, instead often interrupted the vice president as she tried to answer his questions and talked over her.
Still, those running the Democrat’s campaign came away pleased with the encounter and believes that she helped herself with voters.
Capping off an intense media blitz, Harris surprised many by announcing that she would sit for the first time for an interview with the right-wing cable network known to actively boost the candidacy of her Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
Baier, known as one of the more objective and fair voices on Fox News, peppered the vice president with questions on a variety of issues, from immigration, foreign policy and the mental acuity of Harris’s current boss, President Biden.
The interview perhaps reached its most-contentious point when Harris brought up recent comments about using the US military against what he called “the enemy from within” made over the weekend.
Baier, however, cued up a selectively edited clip of Trump from an appearance the former president made Wednesday on Fox News which downplayed the seriousness of his promises to use the might of the US military to go after political opponents and other Americans.
“Bret, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about ‘the enemy within’ that he has repeated when he is speaking about the American people. That’s not what you just showed,” Harris countered.
“He was asked about that specific — ” Baier began.
“No, no, that’s not what you just showed, in all fairness and respect to you,” the vice president insisted.
“That was the question that we asked him,” Baier replied.
“You didn’t show that,” Harris said. “And here’s the bottom line: He has repeated it many times. You and I both know that, and you and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protests. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him.
“This is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he would lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake, which is why you have someone like the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying what Mark Milley has said about Donald Trump being a threat to the United States of America,” she added.
Afterwards, political analysts and other journalists said that Baier came off poorly.
“I mean, he was rude, but I don’t necessarily mind journalists being rude and interrupting interviews when they’re not answering the question. But she was answering the question,” said George Conway, the conservative attorney who has been one of Trump’s fiercest opponents. “What she did well was turn the questions back on the questioner to make her point, which is something you want to do as a lawyer. She’s showing her skill as an advocate there.
“You know, I think the contrast between her not being coddled and being tough and being able to respond with substance and truth is a remarkable contrast with Donald Trump, who needs to be coddled,” he added.
CNN’s media reporter, Brian Stelter, said the Harris’s appearance on Fox News was more akin to a debate.
“I think Trump refused to debate Kamala Harris again, so Harris did the next best thing. She booked a debate on Fox News,” he said. “And that’s what this was tonight. She essentially walked into a Trump campaign field office, because anchor Bret Baier, who is a, you know, a solid journalist, he is also incredibly sympathetic to Trump because that’s what his fans want, that’s what his viewers want, his viewers want him to represent the Trump point of view. So it was almost as if you had a Trump surrogate interviewing Kamala Harris.”
Through the interview with Harris, Baier clearly was playing simply for the pleasure and satisfaction of the candidate Fox News clearly prefers, Donald Trump, according to Mika Brzezinski, co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe news program.
“We witnessed a man who spent his life as a down-the-middle journalist, seeming to throw it all away for his audience of one, interrupting the vice president awkwardly and unnecessarily, ignoring many issues that define this campaign, including a woman’s right to health care freedom,” she said. “Most disturbing was when he showed a misleading clip about Donald Trump responding to a question about his enemy from within comments.”
But Harris got through the interview and accomplished what she needed to, according to Brzezinski’s Morning Joe colleague, Jonathan Lemire.
“One Harris adviser texted me afterwards and his word was simply ‘presidential,’” he said. “The idea of being in a tough moment, standing up to someone and delivering it.”
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