Vice President Kamala Harris’ first-ever interview on Fox News aired Wednesday. The pretaped segment was expected to be an ambush on the Democratic presidential nominee—and host Brett Baier did not defy those expectations.
Baier immediately tried to bulldoze Harris on the issue of immigration and border security, not even allowing her to respond to his opening “question.” After all, allowing Harris to explain how GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and Republicans decided to exploit border security as an election issue instead of working on a solution wouldn’t make Fox News’ favored candidate particularly appealing.
“I’m responding to the point you raised, and I’d like to finish,” Harris said when Baier tried to bulldoze through a second “question.” She proceeded to detail all of the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to address border security that were ultimately obstructed by Trump and his minions in the Republican Party.
“And Donald Trump found out about that bill and told them to kill it because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.” Harris said, steamrolling right through Baier’s interruptions. “And in this election, this is rightly a discussion that the American people want to have. And what they want are solutions, and they want a president of the United States who is not playing political games with the issue.”
Harris also set the record straight when Baier tried to downplay Trump’s indefensible threats to sic military forces on American citizens who he deems “radical left lunatics.” She objected when Baier instead showed a clip of Trump joking about being persecuted and comparing himself to infamous gangster Al Capone.
“I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about ‘the enemy within’ that he has repeated,” Harris insisted. “That’s not what you just showed.”
The vice president then broke it down for Fox News viewers.
“Here’s the bottom line. He has repeated it many times. And you and I both know that. And you and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people,” Harris told Baier. “He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him.”
“This is a democracy,” Harris continued. “And in a democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he’d lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake”