Kamala Harris' first interview on Fox News was controversial and at times resulted in her and Bret Baier talking over each other.
But while the vice president repeatedly dodged some questions, there were also moments when it appeared she was confronting the networks she hated the most. That was definitely what she wanted to achieve.
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In response to a question about how much of the country believes we are headed in the wrong direction, she expressed enthusiasm, even anger, calling Donald Trump “unfit for service” and “unstable.” ” he exclaimed. It was her signature move to turn the question into a broadside against the former president.
But what about the half of the country that supports him, Baier asked? “Are they stupid?”
Bret Baier and Kamala Harris are side by side. (Fox News Media/Getty Images)
No, but “he's someone who tends to belittle, belittle and belittle,” Harris said. President Trump talks about the “enemy within” and using military force against Americans. “He's talking about locking up people who disagree with him.”
She tried to project an image that stood up to both Fox and her opponents, telling Baier “you know and I know” multiple times before throwing a grenade at Trump. She wanted this fight.
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Among the questions Harris doesn't want to answer are:
Does she support taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for federal inmates, as she did in 2019? “I follow the law,” she said flatly, insisting that President Trump did the same. (The Trump campaign countered that the first such surgery took place in 2022 during her tenure.)
Didn't she know Joe Biden's reputation was tarnished? She danced around it.
Brett Baer interviews Kamala Harris on FOX News. (Fox News Channel)
Why hasn't she made progress on these issues during her time as vice president?
“My presidency is not a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency,” she said, noting that she did not spend most of her life in Washington. It erased her disastrous response on The View, where she couldn't think of anything that made her different from the president.
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The Fox anchor spent the first part of the interview talking about immigration, making multiple follow-up attempts to track her down.
Harris first acknowledged the obvious: “Our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed.”
Why didn't you fix it? President Trump shot down recent attempts at bipartisan legislation, but nothing was accomplished when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress.
Laken Riley's murder shocked the nation. (Ilya Neuverage/AFP via Getty Images)
Has her position changed since her 2019 campaign, when she argued that border crossing should be legalized?
“I don't believe in decriminalizing border crossing,” Harris said, but did not explain the change.
Asked about crimes committed by illegal immigrants, including the murder of Laken Riley, Harris called them “tragic incidents” and said she was heartbroken for the family.
There were times when her answers seemed flimsy, and times when she endlessly misspoken her suggestions.
The showdown session was the first of a short campaign for Harris, following a series of softball sit-ins with people openly supporting her candidacy.
Fox News got exclusive programming and Harris got what she wanted. It was a challenging half-hour trying to change minds among by far the largest audience in cable news.
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She should ditch friends like Howard Stern and Stephen Colbert and give tougher interviews. That's how you show voters you can handle the heat.
