CNN —
Kamala Harris missed the second debate with Donald Trump and appeared on Fox News instead.
The vice president clashed Wednesday night with the pro-Trump network’s top anchor, Bret Baier, in the kind of adversarial, unscripted scrum that Republicans have long accused her of avoiding.
Mr. Harris and Mr. Baier argued, cutting each other off, him exposing her inversions and reversals of policy, and her pushing back on her own points. The controversial clash, which took place in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, had more in common with the vice president facing off against the former president in his only debate than with the formal forensic interviews that often stumble vice presidents. there were.
“Let me finish. Let me finish,” Harris said at the beginning of the interview, using a technique she has used against her male rivals in Congressional hearings and debates.
The vice president’s visit to Fox News showed how he is trying to spark a new turn in a race with no clear leader and most battleground states seen as a toss-up. . President Trump’s decision to decline the second debate with his rival means there are no major events scheduled in the final weeks of the campaign that could change the race. There is.
In the end, on Wednesday, both Harris and Fox News probably got what they wanted.
The vice president appeared combative as he ventured into the safe havens of conservative media, a sharp contrast to Trump, who has largely avoided television news interviews where he would be cross-examined. She singled out his extreme rhetoric and threats to use military force against the “enemy from within” in a way rarely seen by the channel’s viewers. Her performance reinforces her new campaign tactic of raising new alarm about Trump’s second term, and in a speech earlier Wednesday she said the former president was sitting in the Oval Office. “You’re going to plan your revenge, you’re going to stew in your grievances, you’re going to be thinking about yourself and yourself.” Not you. ”
Harris said in an interview last week that not much had changed over the past four years as the unpopular commander-in-chief, and he had done some damage control. “My presidency is not a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris said. “Like all new presidents who take office, I bring life experiences, professional experiences, and fresh new ideas to the table.”
Meanwhile, Fox provided hours of post-interview content for commentators. For example, post-debate analysis found that Harris failed to answer one of Trump’s accusations: how many illegal immigrants entered the country under her watch. As the network played highlights of the interview, it aired an article titled “Kamala Continues Attacks on Trump.” Mr. Baier urged Ms. Harris to address the tragedy of young American women killed by illegal immigrants (for which the vice president expressed deep sympathy) and to direct funding to gender-affirming care for transgender prisoners. She pressed on issues important to conservative audiences, such as her past support for . Illegal immigration. (She said as president she would follow the law regarding such policies).
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And just in case Ms. Harris changes viewers’ minds, Fox will follow her appearance with fiery comments from Mr. Trump’s eldest sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and former ultra-hardline political adviser Stephen Miller, among others. I made a counterargument.
The tightrope Harris is walking as she tries to project her mettle as a president of steel was clear from criticism of her performance on social media, which has often been used as a metaphor for strong black women. .
But before the interview, Harris’ publicist Ian Sams explained her thoughts. He noted that Fox’s high ratings include some undecided voters and Democrats. And Harris said she wanted viewers to hear her story directly.
The Fox interview capped another day in which Ms. Harris was trying to strip away a small number of voters who could make a difference in a battleground district with less than three weeks until a close election.
After courting black male voters on Tuesday, she traveled to the Keystone State to appeal to Republicans unhappy with President Trump’s anti-democratic actions. Appearing alongside former Republican lawmakers and officials who were kicked out of the party by President Trump, the vice president noted that it is usually surprising to find himself in such company.
But, she added, “That’s not the case in this election, because what’s at stake in this campaign is the democratic ideals that our founders and generations of Americans before us fought for. That’s why the issue in this election is the U.S. Constitution. ”
Democrats believe a significant number of Republican voters could be persuaded to vote for Harris next month, including some who voted for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. A switch of just a few thousand Fox viewers or traditional conservatives could push some battleground states in the vice president’s direction. Still, the risk for Harris is that her demeanor in her first public Fox interview could alienate some voters. And the 100 or so Republicans who showed up with her on Wednesday in Bucks County, a key city on the outskirts of Philadelphia, were often drawn to a Republican past left behind by the populist changes orchestrated by President Trump. was representing.
At a rally in Pennsylvania, Harris struck a new tough tone against Trump, accusing him of becoming “increasingly unstable and unhinged.” She also questions his age and competency, turning the tables on the 78-year-old former president, who frequently used the same strategy against Biden during his campaign days.
Trump has appeared to use Harris’ claims in many of his recent appearances. On Wednesday, for example, it doubled down on false claims that Haitian immigrants are eating dogs and cats in Ohio. He told a Univision town hall filled with undecided Latino voters that refugees who are in the country legally are “eating other things they shouldn’t be eating.”
The Republican candidate also recently sought to distance himself from the turmoil in women’s reproductive health after the Supreme Court’s conservative majority he built overturned the nation’s constitutional right to abortion. In his attempt, he declared himself the “father of in vitro fertilization.” Harris later told reporters that the remarks were “strange” because she is trying to leverage subsequent state-level abortion regulations to widen the gender gap in order to defeat President Trump.
And as Democrats increasingly emphasize President Trump’s perceived threat to American democracy, Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance insisted that the former president did not lose the last election. “I’ve answered this question directly a million times: No. I think we have a serious problem in 2020,” the Ohio Republican said. “So Donald Trump lost the election? Not by the words I use, right?”
Meanwhile, President Trump insisted at Univision’s Town Hall that January 6, 2021, one of the most infamous days in American history, was a “day of love” and that he “did nothing wrong.” did.
All of President Trump’s recent statements would have disqualified a traditional candidate. But it’s a sign of how much he has transformed American politics that his base remains immune to scandal and outlandish behavior.
And there is no doubt that President Trump, despite his rough-and-tumble attitude in breaking restrictions meant to rein in seditious leaders, is the true voice of tens of millions of Americans.
Harris is also hampered by a difficult political environment. She is part of an unpopular administration at a time when many Americans are still feeling the aftershocks of high inflation, which the White House has often downplayed, and are still frustrated by high rent, car and food prices. .
It took her several months to reach the conviction she made clear in the Fox interview, offering a strong contrast to the Biden administration. That in itself reflects her struggles as a presidential candidate. And her struggle to effectively parry some of Mr. Baier’s questions about immigration at the beginning of the Fox interview shows that the issue remains a weakness and her efforts to win support from Republican defectors. It has been shown that this can be a serious hindrance.
Still, the fact that she had the courage to give an interview may help undecided voters. Most of all, her appearance served to highlight how indistinguishable the conservative media establishment and the Trump media establishment are.
