Kamala Harris Told Fox News Viewers What They Almost NEVER Hear About Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris sat for a 27-minute interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier this week that was, impossibly, a contentious but respectful appearance that will have more significant implications for the 2024 election than any of its kind.

In the current political media ecosystem where friendly media outlets, podcasts, and radio hosts are eager to toss softballs to candidates, a tough interview is, sadly, a rare event.

In the minutes and hours after the interview ended, there was a predictable rush to cable news and social media to declare who won the event. These declarations ranged from “Harris leveled Baier!” to “Baier leveled Harris!” almost always revealing some core bias.

To my eye? Harris did well in a challenging environment. Baier later referred to her demeanor as “combative,” though a kinder interpretation would be “assertive.” She avoided her usual tendency of prattling on, perhaps aided by Baier’s interruptions to keep her from filibustering answers.

Baier did precisely what he set out to do and made the most out of his subject in a limited time. His interrogation of Harris was intense and went beyond his challenging treatment of Trump during their interview in June 2023. I can’t entirely agree with progressive criticism that Baier was “rude,” but airing a misleading clip of Trump’s “enemy within” remarks was a mistake I’m sure his production team would like a do-over on.

The truth is that Baier was in a no-win situation. He was always going to get criticized by both Harris and Trump supporters regardless of how he did. That comes with the territory of hosting arguably the most important interview of this campaign. The wind blows harder at the top of the totem pole.

The most significant consequence of this interview, however, is best viewed in the broader context of Fox News political coverage. I’ve written before about how the editorial decision-makers at the largely pro-Trump network put a heavy thumb on the scale of political outcomes not just in how it positively covers Trump and his movement but often more importantly by how it ignores negative stories about the 45th president. The effect this coverage has on the American public is amplified by the fact that Fox News has incredible influence: their audience is larger than that of their cable news competitors combined. As a result, they boast more independent voters than any other cable network by a wide margin.

This is the main reason Kamala Harris went into enemy territory: to present the case for her candidacy (which she did in a broadly effective but detail-limited way) and to prosecute the case against Trump, which she did quite effectively. She brought up several damning facts that Fox News viewers, presuming they don’t consume other news sources, have likely never heard about.

Perhaps most significant was Harris telling Baier, and Fox News viewers by extension, about the raft of Trump’s former cabinet members who have publicly declared Trump unfit to serve.

“Over the last decade, it is clear to me, and certainly the Republicans who are on stage with me,” she said, [that] “the former chief of staff to the president, Donald Trump, former defense secretaries, national security adviser and his vice president, one, that he is unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous, and that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader who spends full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances, and it being about him instead of the American people.”

Harris is referring to the shocking number of Trump administration officials who have said the former president is a danger to the country, including his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley , who recently described him as “a fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.”

Or General John Kelly , who served as DHS Secretary and then chief of staff to Trump (and was the architect of the draconian but effective family separation policy at the border) who has publicly condemned Trump as unfit. What’s more, in a stunning example of something that would get blanket coverage for years on Fox News if it concerned a Democrat, Kelly revealed Trump labeled soldiers who gave their lives fighting in World War II and are buried at Normandy “suckers” and “losers.”

In another instance from the Harris-Baier showdown, the vice president highlighted Trump’s absurd warning against “the enemy within.” That prompted Baier to air an odd clip of Trump deflecting when asked about his ominous remark (Trump addressed it during a “town hall” with sycophantic anchor Harris Faulkner , in a display that served more as a campaign contribution to Trump than any journalistic exercise.)

Instead of airing the original clip, Baier curiously played a clip of Trump saying, “I heard about that. They were saying I was, like, threatening. I’m not threatening anybody. They’re the ones doing the threatening. They do phony investigations. I’ve been investigated more than Alphonse Capone. He was the greatest gangster. No, it’s true. No, but think of it. It’s called weaponization of government. It’s a terrible thing.”

This appeared to set Harris off, and understandably so. “Bret, 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. When he’s speaking about the American people, that’s not what you just showed,” she said. “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. 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!” she said, her voice rising in an entirely appropriate manner. “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. Which is why you have someone like the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying what Mark Milley has said about Donald Trump being a threat to the United States of America.”

This was easily Harris’s best moment and arguably the worst moment for Baier, Fox News, and Trump. It’s stunning that this isn’t getting broad coverage on every outlet, regardless of ideological disposition. Again, many Fox News viewers were likely learning about it for the first time from Kamala Harris.

To be clear, Harris is right. Trump did suggest using the National Guard to take out the “enemy within” and, in the very same interview, described Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff in the very same terms. That’s stunning, but even more shocking, the dangerous commentary has almost been entirely ignored on Fox News, despite the fact it first came from an interview with Fox’s own Maria Bartiromo . CNN’s Jake Tapper provided a terrific essay on the absurdity of this rhetoric and had a fascinating interview with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin that illustrates an effective confrontational interview.

So, purely in terms of messaging, the Harris campaign should be pleased with her performance. Will it move the needle enough to affect the outcome of the election? Normally, I would say no, but given just how close this dead heat race currently stands, she doesn’t need to move the needle much to change the result.

Wouldn’t it be great if Trump agreed to an interview on NewsNation, NBC or CNN? Let’s not hold our breath on that ever happening soon.

Watch above via Fox News.