Fox News host Bret Baier was caught off guard by Kamala Harris and said she may have been “icing the kicker” by appearing later than scheduled for her interview with the network on Wednesday.
Baier also questioned whether Harris went into the interview seeking “a viral moment” that would be shared on other networks and social media, adding: “I think she may have gotten that.”
Democratic presidential nominee Harris took part in a somewhat tempestuous interview with Baier on Wednesday, during which she discussed immigration, transgender healthcare and said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had “talked about turning the American military on the American people.”
Harris’s decision to appeal on Fox News, a conservative leaning network, came as polling indicated the 2024 presidential election is too close to call in a number of key swing states.
The vice president’s campaign team has reportedly also been discussing an appearance on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast as part of a strategy to get Harris a hearing beyond her core support.
Earlier this week polling website 338Canada gave Trump a 51 percent chance of winning in November, up from 47 percent one week ago.
Baier discussed the process behind securing the interview with Harris, later on Wednesday evening, during an appearance on Fox News colleague Sean Hannity‘s show.
During the discussion, Baier said he and his team were on edge as Harris had arrived later than expected, making it more difficult for his team to get the interview ready to go live in time for the start of the show at 6 p.m. ET.
He said: “It was a little tense–we were given the time of 5 p.m. eastern time. Obviously my show is at 6 p.m. They wanted to tape at 5 p.m. We said we were going to tape as live, in other words roll the tape and just turn that around unedited, uninterrupted, but we had to do it before 5:15 otherwise we couldn’t turn the whole machine around before the top of the 6 p.m. show.
“So we were waiting at 4:55, and then 5:00, and 5:05 and 5:10,” he added.
“At 5:17 the vice-president walked out, so it did feel a little bit like they were icing the kicker or trying to, and originally they were talking about 25 minutes and they gave us 20 minutes.”
But, he added: “I was fine with any time, I was really happy to get the interview.”
Newsweek contacted Kamala Harris’s presidential election campaign and Fox News for comment on Thursday via email outside of regular office hours.
During the interview Baier and Harris had a tense back-and-forth over immigration, after the vice-president was asked how many undocumented immigrants the Biden administration “has released into the country over the last three and a half years.”
Harris replied that the U.S. has “a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired” at which point Baier cut in asking about Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas‘s claim that 85 percent of those detained near the Mexican border had since been released.
Bret Baier at Fox News studios on March 05, 2024 (left) and Kamala Harris at Washington Crossing Historic Park on October 16, 2024 (right). Baier said Harris wanted “a viral moment” from their interview.
Roy Rochlin/Anna Moneymaker/GETTY
Harris shot back with, “I’m not finished, I’m not finished” before talking about the failed U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which Biden introduced on his first day in office.
She also referenced a bipartisan immigration deal which she blamed Trump for torpedoing at the start of this year. This exchange was widely shared across social media.
During his later discussion with Hannity, Baier suggested Harris may have been seeking a confrontation.
“I think she had a mission that she wanted to do and maybe she wanted to have a viral moment, she wanted to have a pushback.
“She came to Fox News and she wanted to go after Donald Trump—[a] viral moment that plays on a lot of other channels and on social media—and I think she may have gotten that.”
After the Harris interview was confirmed Baier rejected claims by some Trump supporters that he had agreed to go easy on the Democratic candidate. Trump himself labelled Baier “very soft” in a Truth Social post.
Responding to one Trump supporter, Baier said: “There were no preconditions to get the interview. No one has the questions ahead of time—except me.
“No topic is off the table. And if there is any editing, it will be very minimal for timing and will be editorially the same question and answer.”
