Fox News’ Bret Baier Defends Kamala Harris’ Fight Talk, Would ‘Love’ Having Her Again

Bret Baier it wants to come back again. After the Vice President Kamala HarrisThe first time he sat down on Fox News last week, the anchor, who was unusually aggressive in his questions, hopes to return to the network soon. “I would love to try again,” says Baier Vanity Fair in conversation. “The more candidates face tough but fair questions, the better it is for viewers and voters, and actually better for the candidates.”

Harris entered the lion’s den for an examination last week that served as a political Rorschach test, with Republicans mocking his performance and Democrats praising it, as the Fox News anchor was examines his. (“This was grievance theater, not political journalism,” wrote one critic.) Baier opened the discussion with a question about the number of illegal immigrants allowed into the country under ‘ of the Biden administration, which immediately turned into a violent upheaval. A few seconds after he finished giving his answer, Harris was interrupted by the anchor, who repeatedly pressed for a number as he tried to answer.

The sit-down was replicated on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, with Alec Baldwin mocking Baier’s method in a cold open game. In one exchange, Maya Rudolph as Harris tells Baldwin as Baier that he must “listen” to hear his answer to her questions, and he replies, “No, I can’t because I’m talking.” (Baier replied Vanity Fair: “I laughed out loud a few times and my sons thought it was hilarious. Alec is welcome to host Special Report at any time.”)

Some argued that, as expected, the Fox News anchor challenged Harris more than the former president Donald Trump whose first question from Baier was, “What do you think is the most important issue facing the country right now?” Baier defended his question to VF, he said, “It comes up in the polls time and time again on immigration as one of the top two issues, along with the economy.”

Fox News’ chief political spokesperson said that while there were several times he allowed Harris to make his “talking points” to the audience, his interruptions were in order to ” run,” and added that if he didn’t, the “long answers” would “take up the entire time of this taped interview.” Baier continued that Harris “even agreed, ‘You know what I’m going to say,’ and I was trying to come in and say, ‘Yeah, but this is what I’m asking specifically.’ ”

He also pushed back against criticism that he challenged Harris over his opponent, saying, “If you look back at the Donald Trump interview, I had the same obstacles when it was clear that there was an effort to go down the path of speaking.” Baier said his conversation with Trump “was very similar, trying to bring them back to the topic you’re asking about.” Trump’s Fox News” is how Axios summed it up.

However, throughout last week’s debate, Baier interrupted Harris at least 38 times in 27 minutes, nearly twice as often as he interrupted Trump’s interviews, according to CNN . “I get the criticism,” says Baier. “I wonder if it was different. But if you look back at one person and former president Trump, he didn’t like it at the time. ”

Courtesy of Fox News.

When Fox News tried to get Harris and Trump to agree to a debate, Baier said he was still asking for an interview with the Democratic nominee. Earlier this month, Harris’ campaign asked if he would be interested in sitting down on the battlefield, he recalled. I said, ‘Sure, whatever you give us, we’ll do,'” Baier says. “So that started the administration talk, and we ended up in Pennsylvania.”

Beyond the on-camera fireworks, there was also drama behind the scenes. As the interview went to tape, Baier said the Harris campaign was too close to the 5:18 pm cutoff for the network to shift it for Baier’s 6 pm show. Special Report. He says it ended up being “a waste of time.” According to Baier, Harris “was in the building” early but didn’t enter the interview room until 5:17 p.m., “so we were sweating whether we were going to be able to change the tape. ” Still, he says Harris was “very gracious,” and “the staff was very helpful in organizing it.”

He added: “We welcome them back because I think that exchange enlightens the voters and the viewers.”