As Townhall has been covering, Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for her first-ever Fox News interview on Wednesday night with Bret Baier, the host of "Special Report." It's been part of a desperate media blitz effort, as even her campaign's allies in the mainstream media had taken notice of her supposedly playing it safe and thus sounded the alarm. As disastrous as her interview was, many in the media still not only praised the Democratic nominee, but lashed out against Baier as well.
Not only did just announcing the interview show Harris' desperation, but she likely did herself no favors once it actually took place.
She's trailing in the polls or she wouldn't do this. It's certainly high risk for her. https://t.co/Tx1vaye7Br
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 14, 2024
A particularly absurd reaction came from POLITICO's Adam Wren, who went with the headline, "Who won the day? Harris." His write-up not only referenced Harris' interview, but former and potentially future President Donald Trump's town hall with women, also on Fox News, led by Harris Faulkner.
"Harris, meanwhile, spent the day working to expand her own coalition," Wren wrote, relying on her campaign stop with former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan, and then claimed that she "engaged in an aggressive sit down with Fox News, disarming a talking point that she doesn’t participate in such high-stakes media hits."
Wren's brief mention of the interview focused on Harris finally assured her presidency would be different from President Joe Biden's, whose administration she is part of. "My presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency," she told Baier, though such a response may be too little too late.
"Harris survived the interview with no apparent gaffes — going on offense on a day Trump seemed mired in a defensive crouch," Wren's write-up continued to claim.
POLITICO's post over X sharing Wren's write-up has received close to 2,000 replies mocking such a take.
— Kyle Mann (@The_Kyle_Mann) October 17, 2024
This was the stupidest shit I’ve read in a month.
— Rob Schmitt (@SchmittNYC) October 17, 2024
What excellent propagandists you are. https://t.co/NkoKlDIIoe
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) October 17, 2024
What's telling is what's missing from Wren's write-up. While his piece contains a clip of how "Harris' Fox News interview gets tense over immigration," there's zero mention of the key topic from Wren.
One could also very well regard it as a gaffe that Harris couldn't bring herself to apologize for the murders of Americans whose lives were allegedly taken by illegal immigrants, or to accept that her administration bears blame. Further, she kept bringing up Trump to blame him.
Bret Baier REPEATEDLY asks Harris if she'd like to apologize to the families of Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, and Laken Riley.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 16, 2024
She REFUSES. pic.twitter.com/SGzzTj3wH9
Harris REALLY doesn't like being asked about the consequences of her and Biden’s disastrous border policies. pic.twitter.com/YqVWsiyurF
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 16, 2024
Wren is hardly the only one to have addressed Harris' trainwreck of an interview in such a noteworthy way, though.
Elon Musk has been among those reacting to the interview, and he's reposted screenshots of what he believes is a pattern for how the mainstream media reacted to what they claimed was a "testy" interview.
Who sends out the commands to the NPC media puppets? I’d like to meet them.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 17, 2024
They should really use a thesaurus, so that every media outlet doesn’t use the EXACT SAME words every time. https://t.co/gDU79umXly
“Testy” is this week’s “sharp as a tack” https://t.co/DoQgTOxKRN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 17, 2024
Examples with such a word choice for the headline come from NPR, CNN, AP News, The Hollywood Reporter, and CNA. The headlines were in support of Harris and/or came to her defense when she had to endure being asked about immigration.
The interview wasn't "testy," though, at least not in the way these outlets want readers to think it was. If anything, Baier might have been too nice. Harris kept trying to claim she wanted him to let her finish with her response, but she took forever to get there and she wasn't answering his questions.
On the note of such an interview being supposedly "testy," Sam J. at our sister site of Twitchy highlighted an entire thread from Vigilant Fox as being "the Most DAMNING."
The conversation quickly went off the rails when Kamala Harris dodged Bret Baier's question on illegal immigration while simultaneously saying, “Let’s get to the point.”
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) October 17, 2024
You never see anything like this happen with any other candidate, and it’s so unusual that you literally… pic.twitter.com/BQ3bWx3KBv
As cordial as Baier tried to be, Democrats' allies in the mainstream media still felt the need to defend Harris, as Brian Stelter, now back with CNN, did.
He posted many clips and takes speaking positively of Harris' interview and/or mocking conservatives, including on Fox News.
Trump refused to debate Harris again, so she did the next best thing and did battle on Fox. News junkies will dissect specific answers but normies will just hear that she went into enemy territory and survived/thrived
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 16, 2024
Today Kamala Harris essentially walked into a Trump campaign field office and said "ask me anything." pic.twitter.com/odB1Nu1IAs
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 17, 2024
Fox's programming last night/this morning has portrayed Harris as angry and agitated and evasive. They've really played up the fact that campaign aides gave Baier a wrap signal, which is perfectly common during an interview with a newsmaker.
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 17, 2024
His remarks also got the notice of Mediaite, which Michael Duncan of "The Ruthless Podcast" certainly had something to say about.
While on "The Source with Kaitlan Collins," Stelter laughably claimed that Harris "essentially walked into a Trump field office." He also enphasized that Harris is "tough."
I think at the end of the day, this is all about one word. The word 'tough.' It showed that Harris was tough. She went into the so-called Fox den, and that’s how Harris’s campaign’s promoting it tonight," Stelter said on Wednesday night
All Bret Baier did was ask Kamala if she would have done anything differently, considering voters think we’re on the wrong track.
— Michael Duncan (@MichaelDuncan) October 17, 2024
This is apparently a very biased MAGA question that threatens democracy. https://t.co/BrSDBuOWB2
Duncan, in contrast, highlighted Baier's thoughtful line of questioning. A particularly stupid moment for Harris, and a transparent one, came when Harris ranted and raved with her non-answer on how 79 percent of likely voters believe the country is on the wrong-track.
As Harris tried to insist "you know and I both know what I'm talking about," Baier frankly said he didn't. "I actually don't. What are you talking about?"
HARRIS: "You know and I both know what I’m talking about. You know and I both know what I’m talking about!"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 16, 2024
BRET BAIER: "I actually don’t. What are you talking about?" pic.twitter.com/cBe3Ulb8ow
While Stelter kept his replies open, not everyone who spoke so positively of Harris did. In sharing quite the claims about "loyal Fox-News-viewing women," Alyssa Farah Griffin of "The View" felt the need to restrict replies.
Megyn Kelly, who reminded she worked there for 14 years, shut that take down with her own quoted repost.
There will be loyal Fox-News-viewing women who will walk away from Harris’ interview thinking: I don’t agree w/her much, but she’s not dumb like Trump told me, & she’s tough, despite what he’s said.
— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) October 16, 2024
It matters around the edges in a tight race.
Having worked there for 14 years, I can tell you: no, there won’t. https://t.co/R8D1XyGR8J
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) October 17, 2024
For all the lashing out about how the interview went, it's worth reminding that Harris doesn't need the mainstream media helping her, though she certainly does have such support.
As Matt covered earlier on Thursday, her team urgently gestured for Baier to wrap-up the interview, after already arriving late. That's not a good look, no matter how Stelter tries to spin it.
JUST IN: Bret Baier says there were 4 Kamala Harris staffers waving their hands back and forth to stop the interview.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 16, 2024
“I'm talking like four people waving their hands like it's gotta stop.”
“I had to dismount there at the end.” pic.twitter.com/51yD3a4eqg
Giving a wrap up signal is normal. Having 4 campaign aides screaming and waving their hands is not.
— The Trump Train 🚂🇺🇸 (@The_Trump_Train) October 17, 2024
