Fox News host Bret Baier conceded Thursday morning that Kamala Harris’ campaign should be “happy” with how her “contentious” sit-down interview with him went on Wednesday evening.
Baier, who at times outright interrupted Harris as she spoke, reflected on their conversation in a cameo at the start of Fox News’ morning programming America’s Newsroom and alleged that Harris did a lot of “filibustering” around his questions.
“I left there right after the interview and I thought, ‘wow, this was really a lot more contentious than I thought it was [going to be],’” Baier said.
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The adversarial nature of the interview may have been exactly what Harris was gunning for, Baier speculated. He said her team will likely be satisfied with their sparring, which has since been spliced into a number of viral clips on social media.
“I came away with—there were moments that clearly she prepared for,” Baier said. “I think she wanted to have the viral moment and she got it, and I think her campaign was happy with that.”
The anchor, who hosts Special Report with Bret Baier on weekday evenings, went on to allege that he just had to interrupt Harris to get a straight answer out of her on issues like immigration and the southern border.
“I didn’t really want to keep on interrupting, but if I didn’t, I thought there were maybe be four answers total in the interview,” he said.
Harris was praised by Democrats for not only going on Fox News during her campaign’s home stretch, but also for pushing back against some of Baier’s leading questions that made the sit-down more akin to a debate. The New York Times’ headline after the interview summed up Harris’ appearance well: “Kamala Harris Arrived for a Fox Interview. She Got a Debate.”
Baier’s interview with Harris totaled 27 minutes, making it one of the lengthiest interviews Harris has given since she took over the top of the Democratic ticket. Still, Baier raged that he didn’t get to every topic he wanted and that Harris’ staffers had called off the interview early after showing up 17 minutes late to tape it. He speculated that Harris’ tardiness was her way of “icing the kicker” and playing mind games with him.
“Yeah, it was a quick dismount because I had a lot of people wrapping me,” Baier said on Thursday, motioning his hands as an example. “Doing the big wrap.”
In the immediate aftermath of the interview, Baier sounded even more frustrated in a call with the conservative personality Mark Levin.
“There was a slight bit of frustration,” he said. “I had so much stuff to get to. I was hoping it was going to be this civil back-and-forth, but it was good for her to come on and I think she should do more of them, but I was just trying to get through the talking points and it took a while, and it was a little bit of, you know, interrupting, and kind of, getting in on the breath.”
Baier added in that call that he hopes that Harris will come back for a second interview with him that can be less adversarial.
“It could be that this is meant for a viral moment and essentially, this is practice for a debate and so I need to be able to get my questions as much as I can in a respectful but tough way and hope that she comes back when she’s in a different, talkative mood and we learn more,” he said.
