Vice President Kamala Harris opened her first interview on Fox News with a heated exchange with host Bret Baier on Wednesday evening, as he repeatedly interrupted her answer to his question regarding the Biden administration’s handling of what he called “illegal” migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“How many illegal immigrants would you estimate your administration has released into the country over the last three and a half years?” the Special Report with Bret Baier host asked the vice president at the top of the one-on-one interview.
Harris thanked him for the question because, she said, it’s an important matter for a number of voters. She then told Baier, “You know what I’m going to talk about” before she was interrupted by the host, who demanded an estimate from the presidential candidate.
“But do you — just — a number. Do you think it’s 1 million? 3 million?” he asked.
“Brett, let’s just get to the point,” Harris responded.
The two continued to spar as Harris attempted to answer the question, which is a top issue for many in this election cycle, but the Fox News host refused to allow her to speak.
“You have to let me finish,” she said at one point, evoking her famous shut-down of Mike Pence’s interruptions during the 2020 vice presidential debate when she told him, “I’m speaking.”
Later, Harris was asked a question that very few Americans likely care about this election cycle when he questioned if she supports “using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens to transition to another gender.” She answered in the affirmative on the matter when filling out a questionnaire as a senator and has become a talking point of conservatives as Harris comes within reach of the presidency.
“I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed, you’re probably familiar with it now,” Harris said. “It’s a public report that under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available on a medical necessity basis to people in the federal prison system.”
As the interview closed, Harris touched on her rival’s harsh statements about and insults toward U.S. military personnel and commented on the one-sided nature of the interview with the Fox host.
“I would like that we would have a conversation that is grounded in a full assessment of the facts,” Harris told Baier. “This interview is supposed to be about the choices that your viewers should be presented about this election, and the contrast is important.”
It was questioned why Harris would bother with a sit-down interview at Fox News, whose bias toward the GOP and blatant distortion of facts has become notorious and gotten them nearly sued into oblivion. Why this is was made abundantly clear during their first interview with a Democratic presidential candidate in eight years on Wednesday. Ahead of the interview, her spokesman told the Associated Press why the campaign was giving it a shot.
Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams told the outlet, “The vice president, Governor Walz and our campaign believe it is important to speak to all Americans, wherever they are getting their information or entertainment, so they can hear directly from us — not through a filter — who Vice President Harris is, what she stands for and what she’s running to do.”
