On Thursday morning, the hosts of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” morning show offered up a litany of complaints about Vice President Kamala Harris’ performance during her interview with their colleague Bret Baier the night before. Harris appeared for a one-on-one interview with Baier on “Special Report,” in her first Fox interview since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee. “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy complained that Harris frequently brought up Donald Trump during her interview, even though Trump is her chief rival, de facto head of the Republican Party, and a former president. Doocy and co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence B. Jones agreed that a drinking game based on taking a drink every time Harris mentioned Trump would lead to a viewer being “smashed.” The hosts did not explain how Harris could make her case without drawing distinctions between herself and Trump and his record on the issues. YouTube Video Doocy also took issue with how Harris prepared for the event. “So going in, Kamala Harris knew that there were going to be a lot of questions about the border and migration, and she had some prepared answers,” Doocy said. Of course, this is standard practice for competent political candidates. In contrast to Harris, Trump frequently responds to questions with unrelated answers or rants about strange issues—but Fox has spent years praising Trump and backing his campaigns. YouTube Video In Wednesday’s interview, Baier repeatedly attempted to get Harris to accept questions framed through a conservative lens and in a way meant to elicit a conservative policy response, particularly on immigration. Harris pushed back on this behavior and explained to Baier and his viewers that the Biden-Harris administration has proposed immigration reform and backed a bipartisan border bill, efforts that were blocked by Republicans after urging from Trump. Jones argued during “Fox & Friends” that Baier’s technique—i.e., frequently interrupting Harris as she tried to respond to his questions—was valid due to the time constraints of the interview “If you allow the person that you’re interviewing to monologue, you won’t get to the substance,” Jones said. But Fox rarely acknowledges the policy ideas on border issues favored by Democrats, preferring instead to demonize migrants and offer up racist claims. YouTube Video Harris’ substantive responses are the sort of thing Fox viewers rarely hear, and surveys have shown that the audience is ill-informed on major issues in comparison to the population at large. During her interview, Harris confronted this behavior head-on, calling out Baier and the network for a deceptive edit of Trump remarks. In the footage, Trump referred to liberals and Democrats as the “enemy within” warranting a military response, but Fox edited out the context to omit his line of attack. Ultimately, Harris took part in a well-received interview on the major network most hostile to her candidacy and the Democratic Party. And Fox’s hosts were not happy about the result. We need your help if we’re going to defeat Trump, Vance, Project 2025, and Republicans up and down the ballot. Click here to volunteer to write letters so we can increase voter turnout.
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