Fox News host Bret Baier recapped his Wednesday night interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, telling his colleagues that he got a sense early on that Harris “was going to be tough to redirect without me trying to interrupt.”
The interview, Harris’ first on the right-wing network since becoming the Democratic nominee, was broadcast on Special Report after being filmed in the previous hour. According to Baier, the interview had been scheduled for 5 p.m., but Harris showed up 15 minutes late. This, he complained, was like “icing the kicker” in football.
“We were supposed to start at 5 p.m. This was the time they gave us. Originally, we were going to do 25 or 30 minutes. They came in and said, ‘Well, maybe 20.’ So, it’s already getting whittled down. And then the vice president showed up at about 5:15 p.m. We were pushing the envelope to be able to turn it around for the top of the 6:00 p.m.. So that’s how it started,” Baier said.
The Fox host, who would go on to interrupt Harris’s responses several times, said their first exchange—on immigration—showed that she would be “tough.”
Harris Shuts Down Bret Baier as He Plays the MAGA Hits
“I could tell when we started talking that she was going to be tough to redirect without me trying to interrupt,” said Baier, who likened his experience to interviewing former President Barack Obama years ago. “I did this with President Obama—at one point I just said, ‘Mr. President, I know you like to filibuster.’ I just didn’t even have the chance, sometimes, to redirect in those ways. I had a lot of other questions.”
Baier said later that towards the conclusion of the interview, he could see members of Harris’ team signaling that his time was up.
“I’m talking like four people waving their hands like it’s got to stop,” he said, adding that Harris might benefit by doing similar interviews in the future.
“Maybe she should do more of these,” he said.
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