Harris Fights to Be Heard During Fox News Interview

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris made a direct pitch to Kamala-curious Republican voters on Wednesday, sitting for an interview with Fox News’ Brett Baier that will perhaps be best remembered for how many times he interrupted or spoke over her responses.

“I’m in the middle of responding to the point you’re raising, and I’d like to finish,” the Democratic nominee told Baier at one point.

Harris’ appearance was her first ever on the Rupert Murdoch-owned conservative news outlet, and literally within seconds, Baier, the network’s former chief White House and Pentagon correspondent, made it clear he wanted to knock her off her game.

Baier began with the topic of illegal immigration and border security, an area where polls suggest former President Donald Trump holds an edge over the vice president.

“How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?” Baier asked,

“I’m glad you raised the issue of immigration,” Harris began, but before she could finish her thought, just 36 seconds into their give and take, Baier interrupted.

“Do you think it’s 1 million? Three million?” he asked.

“Right, let’s just get to the point,” Harris said.”The point is that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired.”

“So your Homeland Security secretary said that 85% of apprehensions …” Baier said.

“I’m not finished,” Harris said.

“We have a rough estimate that 6 million people have been released into the country …” he said.

“Let me just finish,” Harris said.

“I’ll get to the question, I promise,” Baier said. 

“I was beginning to answer,” Harris said.

“And when you came into office, your administration immediately reversed a number of Trump border policies, most significantly, the policy that required illegal immigrants to be detained through their deportation, either in the U.S. or in Mexico, and you switched that policy and released them from custody while awaiting trial,” Baier said.

“Instead, included in those were a large number of single men, adult men, who went on to commit heinous crimes. So looking back, you regret the decision to terminate [the] remain in Mexico [policy] at the beginning of your administration?” he continued.

“At the beginning of our administration, before we worked on infrastructure, before the Inflation Reduction Act, before the Chips and Science Act, before the bipartisan Safer Communities Act … the first bill we introduced, practically within hours of taking the oath, the first bill that we offered Congress was a bill to fix our immigration system,” Harris said.

“Yes ma’am, it was called the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2000, before the bipartisan Safer Communities Act,” Baier said.

“Exactly,” Harris said.

“It was essentially a pathway to citizenship …” he said.

“May I finish? You have to let me finish,” she said.

“We recognized from day one that, to the point of this being your first question, that this is a priority for us as a nation and for the American people,” Harris said.

The exchange set the tone for the remainder of the 27-minute interview. 

While it was consistent with the coverage Harris gets daily on Fox News and other conservative news outlets, a number of viewers responded on social media by saying they were disappointed they weren’t getting to hear what the she had to say, even if they disagreed with her.

But the barrage of adversarial questions from Baier did yield some dividends for Harris.

Among other things, they gave Harris her best opportunity to date to draw a distinction between the Biden administration and what her potential administration will look like.

“Let me be very clear, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” she said at one point.

“Like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas,” Harris continued. “I represent a new generation of leadership.” 

Baier responded by asking about the Harris campaign slogan “A New Way Forward,” and mentioned that she repeatedly told attendees at her campaign rallies that “it’s time to turn the page.”

“You have been vice president for three-and-a-half years, so what are you turning the page from?” he asked.

“Well, first of all, I’m turning the page from the last decade in which we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump, that has been designed to divide our country and have Americans literally point fingers at each other,” she said.

Harris went on to characterize Trump’s approach to leadership as being based on the proposition that “the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down instead of … on who you lift up.”

The true measure of the strength of a president, she said, is the extent to which they recognize “the vast majority of us have more in common than what separates us.” .

Later, Baier played a Trump campaign ad in which the former president criticizes Harris for her past support for prisoners receiving gender transition care.

The spot claims the vice president is in favor of “taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners” and “illegal aliens.”

“So are you still in support of using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens to transition to another gender?” Baier asked.

“I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed,” Harris said, pointing out that during the Trump administration federal prison officials routinely provided gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, on a “medical necessity basis” to the small group of inmates who requested it during his term in office.

“Frankly, that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit like throwing stones when you’re living in a glass house,” she said.

“I think he spent $20 million on those ads trying to create a sense of fear in the voters, because he actually has no plan in this election that is about focusing on the needs of the American people,” Harris continued.

Turning the tables, Harris said, “it is clear to me, and certainly to the Republicans who are on stage with me … the former Chief of Staff to President Donald Trump former Defense Secretaries, the national security advisors and his vice president … that he is unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous, and that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader, but spends his full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances and it being all about him.

“The American people are tired of that,” she said.

With that, Baier asked why, if Trump is so bad and her plans for the future so good, she isn’t running away with the election at this point.

“Why is half the country supporting him? Why is he beating you in a lot of swing states?” he said. “Why is that happening?”

“This is an election for president of the United States,” Harris said. “It’s not supposed to be easy.”

“Are they misguided, the 50% who support Donald Trump? Are they stupid?” Baier pressed.

“I would never say that about the American people,” Harris said. “In fact, if you listen to Donald Trump, if you watch any of his rallies, he’s the one who tends to demean and belittle and diminish the American people. He’s the one who talks about an enemy within … suggesting he would turn the American military on the American people.”

Baier then showed a clip in which Trump suggested he didn’t know what Democrats are talking about when they assert he’s threatened to go after his political enemies if he’s reelected.

“I heard about that,” Trump said. “They were saying I was, like, threatening people. I’m not threatening anybody. 

“They’re the ones doing the threatening. They do phony investigations. I’ve been investigated more than Alphonse Capone … it’s called the weaponization of government. And it’s a terrible thing.”

“Brett, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not [reflective of] what he has been saying about the enemy within, something he has repeated when he is speaking about the American people. In all fairness and respect to you … [this video] he didn’t show that,” Harris said.

“Here’s the bottom line. He has repeated it many times. 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 protest. 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 should be willing and able to handle criticism without saying he would lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake in this election,” she said.

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