Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany surprisingly lauded Kamala Harris on Wednesday, praising the vice president for her recent appearance on The View and insisting that Harris’ focus on abortion rights ahead of the 2024 election is “very powerful” among young women.
Outside of President Joe Biden, Harris has perhaps been the most demonized figure on Fox News and across right-wing media since Donald Trump was ousted from the White House. Besides repeatedly mocking Harris over her “word salad” speeches and social media activity, the conservative cable giant has suggested that the first Black female veep is a product of “affirmative action” and “gets more favorable treatment because of her race and gender.”
During Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News’ midday panel show Outnumbered, it appeared that the hosts were once again teeing up an opportunity to criticize the vice president, snarking that she sat down for a “hard-hitting” interview on The View.
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After co-host Emily Compagno and Washington Examiner editor Kaylee McGhee White blasted Harris for “fearmongering” by telling the ABC talk show she was “scared as heck” about Trump winning the election, McEnany took the conversation in a different direction.
Flagging a clip from Harris’ appearance on The View, McEnany noted that the vice president centered the overturning of Roe V. Wade and the subsequent restrictions on abortion as an issue of personal freedom.
“I travel our country and I have been in states that have banned access to reproductive freedom,” Harris declared on Wednesday. “There is concern if their daughter is going to college, will she go to a state and have access to healthcare she might need including reproductive health… We are not asking anyone to abandon their personal beliefs, it’s just that the government, in this year of our lord 2024, the government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies.”
Adding the caveat that she “disagrees with almost everything” the vice president said, McEnany proclaimed that this “was one of her better interviews when it came to style.” She also claimed that Harris is “clearly doing some sort of media training” and has been “deployed” by the administration to appeal to women and young progressives.
“She’s on a show whose audience is mainly women. She brought up abortion again and again and again,” the former Trump spokesperson continued. “Even when she was given low-hanging fruit—she was asked about January 6 and the 91 indictments against Trump—she pivoted right back to abortion because she knows what is true. The GOP has lost every single abortion ballot initiative post-Roe. Every single one.”
Saying she’s “implored” the Republican Party as “someone who is pro-life” herself to be more compassionate on the issue of abortion, which has led to Democratic victories across the nation, she called on the GOP to be “more pro-mother” instead of just focusing on unborn babies. The ex-Trump flack then issued a warning to conservatives.
“We, as a party, must do that because what Kamala is doing, right or wrong, is very powerful among young women,” McEnany concluded.
