LOS ANGELES.–Taking flack from the Kamala campaign and legacy media, 54-year-old Fox News anchor Bret Baier took a mouthful from his critics for interrupted 60-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris in their Oct. 16 interview. Kamala, from the jump, refused to answer any of Bret’s questions, instead giving talking points on her campaign speeches. Baier could not get Kamala to answer anything in the 25-minute interview, including whether the country has a border problem or answering Bret’s question about how many illegal aliens have crossed the border in the last four years. Whatever Bret asked, he was treated just a badly as 78-year-old former President Donald Trump when Kamala hit him with everything but the kitchen sink in the Sept. 27 ABC News debate, telling Trump to face he was not fit to be president. Baier’s interview marked a new low for Kamala with only two weeks left.
Democrats praised Kamala’s response where she was viewed a feisty, unwilling to let Fox News box her into a corner with real campaign questions. To Kamala and her handlers, she was told to filibuster, using up all the interview time on run-on answers to prevent Baier from asking any relevant questions. NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” lampooned Baier, with 66-year-old actor Alec Baldwin playing Baier, interrupting Maya Rudolf, who played Kamala, 38 times in 27 minutes, according to a CNN tally. Bret was frustrated knowing that Kamala entered the interview with a strategy to not answer any of his questions. “The campaign came in with a plan, and the wanted a strong viral moment. She clearly had a couple of those and she used a lot of her time talking about former President Donald Trump,” Baier said, when questioned why he kept interrupting Kamala.
Baier is considered one of the most respectful, miled-mannered, non-combative journalists at Fox News and in the industry. He’s regarded as a steady hand in an industry prone toward political bias and yellow journalism. Baier was exactly the kind of journalist Kamala should have allowed to do his job but instead opted to thwart any meaningful conversation. Instead of looking thoughtful and tough, Kamala looked defensive, unable to rise to the occasion to allow an objective, even-keeled interview. “I wish we could have just had this conversation , but because of time constraints and how she was answering, I figured if we don’t do what we did, it would have been about four questions in [those] 20—plus minutes,” Baier said, explaining why he asked follow-up, clarifying questions, prompting all the liberal criticism about interrupting Kamala during the interview.
Baier interviewed Trump in 2023 saying that Trump did the same thing, “much the same kind of tenor,” when Trump kept talking and refusing to directly answer Bret’s questions. “The same kind of interruptions when when the president tried to “go down talking points road.” Whatever happened with Trump in 2023, it’s not the same only two weeks out from the 2024 election, with millions of voters watching Kamala’s appeal to a Fox News audience. Instead of appealing to a more conservative audience, Kamala turned off Fox News viewers, acting combative with mild-mannered Bret Bair. Judging by the way polls have gone since the interview, Kamala’s numbers continue to go south. Kamala has a perfect chance to show her reasonableness but instead showed her ornery side, turning off more voters, especially independents, looking to make a decision.
Baier tried to get his questions answered but showed, that if a candidate chooses, they can stonewall an interview. Voters never got a sense of what Kamala would do differently in the next four years than she did in the last four as Vice President under 81-year-old President Joe Biden. Kamala has committed the U.S. to continue the proxy war with the Kremlin to defend the Ukraine government. Kamala has told voters she would follow exactly the same path as Biden, supplying arms-and-cash to Ukraine until 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled all his troops out of Ukraine. “I get the criticism,” Baier said about interrupting Kamala during the interview. But to get Kamala to admit how she would do things differently from her time with Biden, she said she didn’t know. Bret was prevented from getting any clarification for Fox New viewers that watched Kamala stonewall.
Kamala has been fit-to-be-tied over the past several weeks watching her polls consistently drop, all because voters can’t tell where she stands on most issues, other that the reckless Ukraine War where she would continue the Biden policy. When it comes to just asking simple questions, she can’t admit she’d do things differently in a new Kamala administration. Had she leveled with voters and admitted she and Joe made mistakes, especially on the border, she might have scored some points against Trump. But instead Kamala showed her defensive side, treating Baier disrectfully, refusing to answer simple questions. Baier insists he did nothing different when he interviewed Trump in 2023. “I’d love to do it again,” Bret said, knowing that the clock has run out on the 2024 election. Whatever the trends today, they’ll continue right through Election Day, giving Trump the edge.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
