Kamala Harris sparred with Fox News' Bret Baier in a chat meant to sell us on ... the interviewer
By: Melanie McFarland (Salon)
Few were expecting the showdown to do much for Harris, although Fox's rivals were shocked to amusement by Fox's selectively edited Trump clip.
"Brett Baier just used a soundbite to try to clear Donald Trump of saying a thing in which he cut out the part where he says it!" said an animated Chris Hayes, before playing the full clip of Trump telling the town hall assemblage, "It is the enemy from within, and they're very dangerous. They're Marxists and communists and fascists and they're sick."
Then he name-checks California Democratic congressional representatives Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi as "dangerous for our country, "so sick" and "so evil. "
"If you have a smart president, they can all be handled," Trump says, before segueing into the relatively harmless section Baier played for Harris.
"You see what they did there? On their own network?" Hayes continued before snarkily pointing out the obvious: "We also have recording equipment here at 30 Rock, like a lot of other places, where you can just, you know, grab that."
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In an alternate universe, Vice President Kamala Harris' first Fox News interview probably would have been conducted by Chris Wallace. A veteran of ABC, NBC and CBS News before his 18 years at Fox, Wallace was among the few debate moderators during the 2020 election to wrangle with former president Donald Trump with any measure of success.
"I think the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions," he told Trump in that long ago time when we expected presidential candidates to show up to multiple debates.
Wallace left Fox in late 2021 after he decided that "when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable," he told the New York Times.
Not Fox News' chief political anchor Bret Baier, though. And now that voters aren't getting any more debates before the November election, we're left with Baier trying to prove he can take on a coherent presidential candidate like a Real Journalist. Harris agreed to a pre-taped interview conducted by Baier that aired on Wednesday's edition of "Special Report," which we were assured aired unedited.
Their chat began politely. Harris even played to Baier's vanity by saying, "I know you investigate, and you are a serious journalist." Nearly everything that happened after that showed he is not, and she knew it. First came a boneheaded pop quiz: "How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released in the last three and a half years? Just a number. Do you think it's one million? Three million?" As Harris tried to speak, he eagerly talked over her. "I was beginning to answer you," she said after he promised he'd get to another version of the question he'd already asked.
Then came his demand that Harris confirm whether she will continue "using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens to transition to another gender" and attempts to goad Harris into 1) apologizing to mothers of women murdered by undocumented migrants and 2) calling Trump voters stupid.
The true high/low point came when Harris brought up Trump's multiple references to "enemies from within" and his stated intent to turn the military on those who disagree with him.
Baier thought he was ready for her, throwing to a clip from a Fox town hall that aired earlier that conveniently edited out the section showing him saying those very things.
What he might not have expected was Harris calling out that fallacy.
Related
"This is a democracy!": Harris unloads on Trump's "enemy within" comments during Fox News interview
"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 said.
Baier insisted the clip was Trump's response to a question about those statements, and Harris rightly countered, "You didn't show that, and here's the bottom line: He has repeated it many times, and 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."
Baier absolutely knows that. Trump used the phrase on Maria Bartiromo's Sunday morning program and at his rally in Aurora, Colo., on Friday. Baier discussed and tried to sane-wash Trump's usage of the phrase on his Oct. 15 show. But he also knows the typical Fox viewer won't fact-check him, especially if that would prove the evil liberals might be on to something.
Wednesday night's face-off was never about Harris. It was meant to present Baier as a straight-shooting journalist despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Harris' broadly-promoted Fox News interview is the latest must-watch event that has taken the place of additional debates. Most presidential candidates face each other three times, but Trump has refused to square off with Harris again. He's also pulled out of interviews with "60 Minutes" and CNBC, pitching instead to forums where he won't face harsh questions like Tuesday's all-women Georgia town hall moderated by Harris Faulkner.
Its entirely female audience was overwhelmingly packed with supporters associated with local Republican women's groups who, according to The Independent, were invited by Fox. CNN reports the network did not disclose that detail.
Meanwhile, Harris is engaging in her own media tour which included her own "60 Minutes" conversation.
Harris' campaign likely viewed a sit-down with Baier as an opportunity to prove she can withstand hostile questioning.
Regardless of her team's intent, Wednesday night's face-off was never about Harris. It was meant to present Baier as a straight-shooting journalist despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Take the disclosures about Fox's internal communications laid bare in the Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit filings, which revealed that after Fox became the first network to correctly call Arizona for Biden on Election Night in 2020, Baier suggested retracting the call out of fear of the Trump campaign's wrath and that of his supporters.
"The sooner we pull it even if it gives us major egg. And put it back in his column. The better we are. In my opinion," Baier wrote in an email message reported by the New York Times. Fox News did not pull the call, but did fire former political director, Chris Stirewalt and its DC managing editor Bill Sammon, the two figures that made its Decision Desk a formidable force in Election Night coverage.
And it subsequently slow-walked its Nevada call for Biden: "I have pressed them to slow," Baier said in a text exchange with Tucker Carlson reported by The Daily Beast in 2023. "And I think they will slow walk Nevada. The votes don't come in until tomorrow."
Baier has since signed on to Fox News' right-wing propagandizing, which showed through in his questions and the visuals backing them up.
To tee up his queries about the Biden administration's border policy failures, Baier played a clip of Alexis Nungaray, the mother of murder victim Jocelyn Nungaray, tearfully testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in a September hearing. Democrats on that committee characterized the hearing as an election season attack, citing the lack of related legislative proposals.
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It's a highly strategic framing: no candidate can ever look good by calling the testimony of legitimately grieving mothers a political stunt.
But to ask Harris, "So do you owe them an apology, is what I'm saying?" is disingenuous posturing by a so-called newsman. To follow Harris' expression of sorrow for her loss with "...But do you want to answer her?" is needless grandstanding, not fact-finding pressure.
Not long after that, Baier asked Harris why she thought 50% of the population supported Trump. "So are they misguided, the 50%? Are they stupid?"
Inside the Fox News bubble, Baier's chaotic swinging impressed the guys in the dugout. After the interview, he consulted his colleagues Dana Perino, Martha MacCallum, and "The Five" co-host Harold Ford Jr. on how he did. Each gave him a nice "Attaboy."
"I think it is great that she did the interview with Fox, and I think that it was amazing that you were the interviewer. I think that was an incredible 30 minutes well-spent by both of you," Perino said, before calling Harris' answers, such as they could be with someone prattling over her, "thin."
From the outside, the industry reviews aside from the usual right-wing amplifiers were not uniformly glowing.
Few were expecting the showdown to do much for Harris, although Fox's rivals were shocked to amusement by Fox's selectively edited Trump clip.
"Brett Baier just used a soundbite to try to clear Donald Trump of saying a thing in which he cut out the part where he says it!" said an animated Chris Hayes, before playing the full clip of Trump telling the town hall assemblage, "It is the enemy from within, and they're very dangerous. They're Marxists and communists and fascists and they're sick."
Then he name-checks California Democratic congressional representatives Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi as "dangerous for our country, "so sick" and "so evil. "
"If you have a smart president, they can all be handled," Trump says, before segueing into the relatively harmless section Baier played for Harris.
"You see what they did there? On their own network?" Hayes continued before snarkily pointing out the obvious: "We also have recording equipment here at 30 Rock, like a lot of other places, where you can just, you know, grab that."
This matters, as Hayes cites, because Faulkner broached the question to give Trump a chance to retreat from his fascist rhetoric and he refused to take that hint.
Hayes and other MSNBC anchors aren't taking shots at Baier and Fox News to defend journalistic sanctity, mind you. "Donald Trump has no choice but to come on MSNBC for an interview," Hayes declares at the end of the segment . . . which is hilarious to seriously insist and even more hysterical to imagine.
But that is what we're left with now at this point in the race - special fan service appearances disguised as journalistic exercises.
Baier pleased Trump and his base while fumbling the opportunity to venture beyond culture war claptrap to press Harris on issues with a real and direct bearing on the average American's life.
There were no inquiries about her plans to ease the housing shortage, remedy the rising cost of living or expand healthcare coverage. The only question about the economy was feelings-based and asked Harris to be either a psychic or a psychoanalyst: "Why do you think more people say they trust [Trump] on the economy than they trust you?
His foreign policy segment consisted of a trick question asking her opinion on who America's greatest enemy is. (She answered Iran, when to the MAGA viewership, the correct answer is China . . . depending on what day it is.) Then - for fun, I guess? - Baier tried to get Harris to weigh in on whether, and when, she thought that President Joe Biden's "mental faculties appeared diminished."
It is telling that Baier played back clips from "The View" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to demand she address the question of what she would have done differently from Biden, as opposed to the same segment on "60 Minutes." Maybe the intended effect was to make his questions look harder-hitting than those posed by jovial entertainers. I shouldn't have to point this out, but that's a given for a network news anchor.
There's also a difference between probing a candidate's statements for weak points and showboating to please the man Baier was afraid to anger on election night 2020.
"I would like that we would have a conversation that is grounded in a full assessment of the facts," Harris said at the conversation's close. "…I think this interview is supposed to be about the choices that your viewers should be presented about this election and the contrast is important."
Harris fulfilled her side of the bargain by showing up. Baier failed by neglecting to do anything rigorous or useful with that opportunity. And somewhere Wallace, who now has a CNN show, must be relieved to know his previous election season work set a journalistic bar that his old network's successors have yet to clear.
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Turns out Baier was more than rude to Harris, he was dishonest. He played a sanitized version of Trumps comments at a town hall earlier in the day, and edited out the part where Trump said exactly what Harris said he has been saying.
I thought for a minute or two I was watching the NLCS. There was one hell of a dodger on there. Especially when asked about her meeting with Biden at least once a week for 3 1/2 years and did she notice the decline of his cognisance. She used the favorite answer of quite a few NT members. "But Trump". I LMAO at that one.
As I said,you know Harris was terrible because the left will immediately attack Baier. People on MSNBC already started the racist/sexist card playing.
He treated her like every MSM figure treats every Republican. It may have been the first actual interview Harris ever sat through. I doubt she'll ever do another.
I have seen Brett Baier interview Trump. It is nothing like he acted with Harris. When I watched it I didnt realize that Fox had edited the Trump clip with Faulkner to make him look more sane on the subject of the "enemy within"
The seeded article at the top is the truth of this situation.
Brett Baier complained , on election night 2020, that his network had called Arizona for Biden, and wrote emails to other hosts suggesting they pressure the network to keep Trump in front there.
That is another thing I did not know. He is just about as corrupt as the rest of them over there are.
Because it was an absolute mistake. It was way too premature, which is why no other network did. That they were "correct" doesn't make the process right, it just means they got lucky because the coin bounded their way.
No questions about the abortion issue for the candidate whose campaign largely emphasizes that issue? In most polls abortion rights is one of the top two or three issues, and Baier never brought it up? He did bring up transgender, which is nowhere on the list of top issues.
Where are those polls?
The economy is the top issue for voters in the 2024 election | Pew Research Center
Abortion is near the bottom
Economy Most Important Issue to 2024 Presidential Vote (gallup.com)
Other than jackass left wing pundants trying to make it the issue, where is a national poll showing it in the top 2?
Abortion has passed inflation as the top election issue for women …
5 days ago · Abortion has passed inflation to become the top issue in the presidential election for women younger than 30 since Vice President ... the Democrat’s abortion position is one of the …
You found one poll that targets a specific group that only includes women under 30.
HARRISBURG — Abortion is a top issue for nearly 50% of Pennsylvania voters when considering who to pick for president this November, a new Spotlight PA poll shows.
Feelings vary widely by party. Just 17% of Republican respondents identified abortion and reproductive health as one of the issues that matter the most to them this election cycle compared to a whopping 85% of Democrats.
Abortion a top election issue for nearly half of state voters, Spotlight PA poll shows | Pennsylvania News | wfmz.com
Transgender isnt on the chart you posted at all, yet Baier brought that up.
Sure. He could have asked her why she supports abortions until birth and she would have answered with a word salad and a "but trump." would that matter?
You are grasping at straws John. Bottom line is the government shouldn't pay for any elective surgery, if you are in custody only lifesaving medical treatments. and counseling for their mental health issues.
As the US leads the world economically post-Covid economist agree Harris' economic plan would continue our economic recovery and that Trump's tariffs will result in inflation and recession. Unemployment is non-existent, inflation is down to near the Fed objective, wages are growing, the stock market is reaching new highs weekly due to incredible corporate profits and the MAGA refuse to acknowledge it. Vote Democratic!
The left appears to be all in on supporting transgender people, at the expense of biological women. It's a major issue for them.
It doesn't seem to bother the massive amounts of women Harris voters.
You have to understand, according to many democrats people of color have to be treated differently. It is the soft racism of low expectations.
LOL
Trumps going to have the last laugh.