I ... don't think I've ever seen anything like today's interview between Fox News anchor Bret Baier and Kamala Harris. It may take several days to unpack the entire interview, but it became clear very early that the Democrat anointee had done nothing at all to prepare for her first real challenging media interview since Lester Holt's NBC spot in June 2021.
Over and over again, Baier tried to get Harris to answer for her record and her changing positions. And over and over again, Harris refused to offer any specifics and attacked Donald Trump.
We'll get to some other clips, but Harris' knee-jerk Trump attacks led her right into a stunning trap Baier set. Harris began to accuse Trump of mental instability, at which point Baier asked her to account for her own endorsement of Joe Biden's mental stability. Harris' jaw literally dropped and stopped her cold for a second:
Bear in mind that Biden's cognitive incapacity is the only reason she's running for president. Democrats staged an unprecedented removal of an elected nominee on a major-party ticket, and then hand-picked Harris as his replacement. If Biden didn't have a cognitive issue, why did she go along with his removal?
And how can Harris demand to make Trump's mental capacity an issue while still covering up Joe Biden's dementia?
But that was well into the interview. Harris started off poorly by refusing to answer specific questions about Biden-Harris border policies and instead wanted to talk about Trump. That began on the very first question, when Baier asked Harris to estimate how many illegal immigrants had been released into the country. Harris never answered it, and began filibustering with campaign slogans instead:
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
She eventually walked into another trap related to Tim Walz:
Baier: In 2019, you supported allowing illegals to apply for drivers' licenses, qualify for free tuition at universities, and get free healthcare. Do you still support those things?
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 16, 2024
Kamala: "That was five years ago"
Baier: You're running mate signed all those things into law.… pic.twitter.com/1fB4EIKeC2
It was as if no one on her campaign had ever even thought about this issue. And why would they? They weren't allowing any media contact that was adversarial to any degree, so Harris ended up looking blindsided every time Baier brought up policies and outcomes. And that wasn't even the worst moment from the border-security discussion. This was:
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 spent most of the interview trying to turn the page from Baier's tough questioning on policies and previous positions. Of course, Harris also claims that her candidacy would "turn the page" for voters, and Baier tried to pin her down on that claim. Harris then claimed she wants to turn the page on the entire past decade:
Bret Baier: Your campaign slogan is A New Way Forward and It's Time To Turn The Page. You've been Vice President for 3.5 years. What are you turning the page from?
— Wojciech Pawelczyk (@WojPawelczyk) October 16, 2024
Kamala Harris: The last decade of Donald Trump 🥴 pic.twitter.com/bHKlaW5nFH
Ahem. Trump only accounts for four years of authority in the past decade. Six of those years are split between Barack Obama and Joe Biden -- and herself too. Baier tries to ask Harris what about her own time that she would turn the page from, and Harris seems utterly oblivious to the point.
As I wrote at the beginning, we will spend the next day or so unpacking all of what took place. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that Team Kamala made as big of a strategic error in doing this interview as Team Biden made in doing the debate with Donald Trump. Harris lost her cool almost immediately after being challenged on her record, and grew louder and higher-pitched as she grew more desperate to vent her pre-planned clichés rather than deal with the specifics of Baier's questions.
This was, in short, a trainwreck of epic proportions. And it would have been worse, except Team Kamala sandbagged Fox News a bit to limit the time Harris would have to spend with Baier:
HOLY SMOKES. Bret Baier just called out Kamala's campaign for pulling last minute stunts to shorten the interview and delay its air time.
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) October 16, 2024
"We were supposed to start at 5... We were going to do 25/30 mins... they said maybe 20. She came in around 5:15" pic.twitter.com/lTLGvCzgDY
They had the right idea. They should have showed up at 5:45. If we lived in reasonable times, this would end Harris' career. And it still might.
The whole interview can be seen in this video. It has to be seen in full to be truly appreciated.
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