The Harris-Walz Campaign appears to be in damage control mode after what is being widely viewed as a disastrous interview with Fox News.
Harris has largely avoided television and podcast interviews throughout the bulk of the campaign cycle, the vice president has been scrambling to get as many media appearances as she can in recent weeks. The strategy appears to be keeping in line with an internal memo obtained by the New York Times, which acknowledged that both Harris’ and Walz’s lack of interviews is hurting the campaign.
While the vice president has typically sat down with left-wing and otherwise friendly outlets, Harris stepped out of her comfort zone on Wednesday for an interview with Fox News. Host Bret Baier asked the Democratic nominee a number of tough questions concerning her record, support for President Biden’s policy goals and overall failure to lay out concrete policy goals.
At one point in the discussion, Baier asked Harris how she can be campaigning on providing “a new way forward” given the fact that she is part of the current administration. The Fox News host also pointed to a recent Marquette University poll that found 70 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track.
“More than 70 percent of people tell the country is on the wrong track. They say the country is on the wrong track. If it’s on the wrong track, that track follows three and a half years of you being vice president and President Biden being president. That is what they’re saying,” Baier said.” Why are they saying that? If you’re turning the page, you’ve been in office for three-and-a-half years.”
Harris refused to answer the question and immediately pivoted to an attack on her Republican rival. “And Donald Trump has been running for office…,” Harris replied, prompting Baier to once again point out that she is an incumbent.
At that point, Harris issued a bizarre reply, saying “You and I both know what I’m talking about. You and I both know what I’m talking about.”
“I actually don’t. What are you talking about?” Baier replied. The vice president once again failed to provide a coherent response and began to talk about Republican policies “over the last decade.”
An irate Harris also claimed the former president will arrest his political opponents as her own administration has jailed nearly 2,000 Americans for protesting the 2020 election and is pursuing dubious charges against their leading political rival.
Throughout the interview, Harris’ tendency to dodge questions in favor of attacks on former President Trump became a common theme.
“You’ve called Donald Trump… he’s ‘misguided,’ you say now he’s unstable, he’s not well, you say he’s mentally not stable,” Baier said, at which point the Democratic nominee doubled down. “He is unstable Bret,” she said.
“Let me ask you this, you told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game, that ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished? the Fox News host then followed up.
“Joe Biden, I have watched in from the Oval Office to the Situation Room and he has the judgment and the experiment and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people,” Harris replied, adding that she has no concern over Biden’s cognitive abilities. The vice president continued to say “Donald Trump is on the ballot” as Baier listed examples of the president’s deteriorating condition, including a statement from Hollywood actor George Clooney, who said the president is “not the same Joe Biden.”
On the topic of illegal immigration, the vice president fell back on the campaign’s usual talking point, which is to blame record-breaking illegal immigration numbers under the Biden-Harris Administration on House Republicans.
Harris has long claimed that the U.S. Senate had agreed to a “bipartisan border deal” that was killed by former President Trump. In reality, the “deal” was radically different than what Walz described. The Senate bill would have allowed up to 10,000 illegal aliens a day, provided tens of millions in funding for NGO’s and lawyers to speed up asylum claims and accelerated a green card handout. It also allocated hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other nations.
Baier interrupted Harris’ border monologue — in which she blamed the crisis on Donald Trump — to note that even six Democrats voted against the border “deal.”
“Six Democrats voted against that bill. It would have allowed 1.8 million illegal immigrants into the country a year. A-lot of conservatives had a problem with it,” the Fox News host noted.