Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Both Entered the Lion’s Den. Who Triumphed?

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both took part in challenging media events on Wednesday as the pair looked to sure up voters in the final few weeks of the election.

The vice president sat down with Fox News’ Bret Baier for an at times contentious interview on the conservative news network.

The former president appeared at a town hall event on the Spanish-language network Univision the same day. He took a series of tough questions from mostly undecided Latino voters in Miami, Florida, on key issues such as immigration.

For Harris, the Fox News interview was an opportunity to broaden her appeal to Republicans and independents by appearing on a channel that is seen as generally critical of Democrats. Trump would have hoped to use his Univision town hall event to attract Latino and Hispanic voters, demographics that could be potentially key in such swing states as Arizona and Nevada.

Reactions to both performances were mixed. Fox News pundit Brit Hume told the network’s Special Report program that Harris was “combative and energetic and she certainly landed some blows on Donald Trump” during her interview. Trump’s campaign said Harris’s interview was a “train wreck.”

Trump was criticized by Harris’ campaign for failing to directly answer several questions from the town hall audience. Miami’s Republican mayor, Francis Suarez, said Trump did a “fantastic job” at the Univision event.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump and Harris campaign teams for comment via email.

Kamala Harris’ Tough Questions on Fox News

The vice president and Baier sparred and often spoke over each other from the outset of the interview.

Baier repeatedly pressed Harris on the Biden administration’s reversal of restrictive Trump-era policies and asked whether the families who had loved ones killed by people who crossed the border illegally deserved an apology.

“Let me just say, first of all, those are tragic cases, there’s no question about that, and I can’t imagine the pain that the families of those victims have experienced for a loss that should not have occurred,” Harris responded.

Harris went on to say that the fact that Trump helped kill a bipartisan border security bill prevented more “agents at the border, more support for the folks who are working around the clock trying to hold it all together to ensure that no future harm would occur.”

Harris was asked by Baier if she was ever concerned if President Joe Biden’s “mental facilities appeared diminished.”

Harris replied that “Joe Biden is not on the ballot, but Donald Trump is” to suggest there are also concerns about the Republican being in office for another term.

“Even people who worked for him in the Oval Office, worked with him in the Situation Room, and have said he is unfit and dangerous and should never be President of the United States again, including his former vice president [Mike Pence], which is why the job was open for him to choose another running mate,” Harris said.

One of the more contentious moments came when Harris was describing Trump recently saying he would use the military against the political left, which he called “the enemy within.” Baier rolled footage of Trump describing the backlash against those comments as an exaggeration. Harris called out Baier for selectively rolling the clip of Trump’s defense of his comments, rather than addressing the comments themselves. She said doing so diminished or sanitized Trump’s calls for violence.

Reacting to Harris’ Fox News interview, Dana Perino, who served as press secretary for former President George W. Bush, told Special Report: “At times, especially when she was trying to go after Donald Trump, she was fairly effective in that, to try to get her point of view across.”

In a statement, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said Harris’ interview was a “train wreck.”

“Kamala was angry, defensive, and once again abdicated any responsibility for the problems Americans are facing,” Leavitt said.

“She couldn’t give a straight answer to a single question because she has no answers. Kamala’s entire campaign is based on lies about President Trump. Kamala can’t handle the pressure of an interview with Fox News—she certainly can’t handle the pressure of being President of the United States.”

Former Representative Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who is a regular Trump critic, said: “She went into the lion’s den and took them on and stood tall. Fox tried their bs gotchas in their rightwing reality, and she turned everything deftly back to Trump and held him accountable in his own safe space. She did not let them bait her at all—strong, confident, epic. She totally schooled Bret Baier.”

Donald Trump’s Unfriendly Univision Audience

Trump also entered what could be considered a hostile environment on Wednesday as he spoke to a group of mostly undecided Latino voters who pressed him on his previous actions and comments.

During the Univision town hall event in Miami, Trump seemed to listen intently when members of the audience spoke, often nodding when a point was made even if it was criticism.

One undecided voter, who identified as an unregistered Republican, told Trump: “Your action, and maybe inaction, during your presidency and the last few years was a little disturbing to me.” The voter cited Trump’s responses to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the COVID pandemic as examples.

He then asked why he should support Trump’s latest White House bid when several members who worked in his previous administration, including Pence, were not.

“The people that don’t support are a very small portion. We have 97 percent of the people in the administration support,” he said

Trump went on to downplay the Capitol riot as a “day of love.”

“You had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington. They didn’t come because of me, they came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election…Some of those people came down to the Capitol, I said peacefully and patriotically, nothing done wrong… That was a day of love from the standpoint of the hundreds of thousands—the largest group I’ve ever spoken before,” he said.

Trump added that many voters, including those in the Latino community, would support him in November. “Maybe we’ll get your vote,” he said. “Sounds like maybe I won’t, but that’s OK, too.”

A Latino farmer also asked Trump who would do jobs such as picking fruits and vegetables if the former president carries out his plans to mass deport undocumented migrants.

Trump replied: “Farmers are doing very badly right now, very, very badly under this administration, under my administration, farmers did very well.”

Trump then attacked the Biden administration for allowing “hundreds of thousands of people that are murderers, drug dealers, terrorists” into the country.

“We want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally. They have to love our country. They have to love you, love our people. The problem with this administration is they’ve totally lost control,” Trump said. “We want people to come in but we don’t want murderers.”

Harris’ campaign team repeatedly called out Trump on social media, sometimes sharing truncated clips, for failing to directly respond to a number of questions at the town hall event.

Miami Mayor Suarez praised the former president’s appearance on Wednesday.

“President Trump did a fantastic job on Univision tonight! He made it clear why Hispanic Americans are voting Republican at record levels,” Suarez posted on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s simple: we want safe communities, prosperous families, and a bright future for our children.”

Polls have indicated that Trump’s polling numbers in the Latino and Hispanic community are improving.

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 56 percent of Hispanic voters said they would vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, with 37 percent saying they would vote for Trump.

In 2020, Joe Biden won the support of 65 percent of Latino voters, compared to 32 percent for Trump, according to a CNN exit poll.