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442593


Date: October 16, 2024 at 17:59:24
From: old timer, [DNS_Address]
Subject: 5 takeaways from a contentious Bret Baier, Harris interview

URL: 5 takeaways from a contentious Bret Baier, Harris interview


5 takeaways from a contentious Bret Baier, Harris interview

BY ALEX GANGITANO - 10/16/24 8:36 PM ET

Vice President Harris sat for her toughest interview yet since becoming
the Democratic nominee on Wednesday, when she was peppered with
questions from Fox News’s Bret Baier.

The two sparred frequently, at times speaking over each other on the
matters of immigration, President Biden’s mental fitness, transgender
prisoners and cases involving alleged murders by migrants.

Harris took a risk by appearing on the network just three weeks before
Election Day as part of a recent media blitz in which she’s trying to cobble
together enough of a coalition to beat former President Trump.
Here are five takeaways from the Bret Baier interview.

Harris’s faces toughest interview so far

Harris and Baier sparred from the outset when Baier asked about the
number of migrants who have entered the country illegally since the start
of the Biden administration. The Fox News host followed up several times
with questions related to immigration, a subject that took up nearly half
the airtime.

Multiple times throughout the interview, they had a back-and-forth over
Harris not responding to a question or pivoting on an answer, at times
talking over each other.

At one point, Baier asked Harris what she made of such a large contingent
of Americans expressing support for former President Trump, while the
two candidates remained largely neck and neck in polling, asking her, “Are
they stupid?”

“Oh God, I would never say that about the American people,” she
responded. “He’s the one who tends to demean and belittle and diminish
the American people.”

Harris also pushed back when Baier tried to move on from a question
regarding Trump’s “enemy from within” remarks about his own rivals at
home.

Baier played a clip from a town hall that aired earlier Wednesday on Fox
News’s “The Faulkner Focus,” during which Trump said, “I’m not
threatening anybody.”

“That clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy from within
… that’s not what you just showed,” Harris told Baier. “You didn’t show
that and here is the bottom line, he has repeated it multiple times, and you
and I both know that, and you and I both know he has talked about turning
the military on the American people.”

Harris was referring to Trump’s remarks in another interview in which he
called his Democratic opponents the “enemy within” and suggested the
military could quell unrest, which drew backlash and became a
centerpiece of one of Harris’s campaign rallies.

Baier puts Harris on defense over immigration

Baier pressed Harris on the Biden administration’s decision to end a
Trump-era policy that forced potential asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico
to wait out the results of their case in U.S. immigration court, to which
Harris responded by noting the first proposed piece of legislation by
Biden was an immigration bill.

Baier also brought up Rachel Nungaray, Laken Riley and Rachel Morin,
who were all young women allegedly killed by men who entered the
country illegally, and he asked the vice president if their families are owed
an apology.

“Those are tragic cases, there’s no question about that,” Harris
responded, adding that she was “sincerely” sorry for the families’ losses.
Baier also asked about her 2019 stance that border crossings should be
decriminalized. That is one of several issues Harris has been accused of
flip-flopping on. She told Baier she does not believe in decriminalizing
border crossings.

“I do not believe in decriminalizing border crossings and I have not done
that as vice president, and I would not do that as president,” she said.

Harris addresses tenure as VP, ‘turning the page’

Baier played a clip from Harris’s interview on “The View,” during which she
said there was nothing that “comes to mind” when it comes to what she
could have done differently from Biden in the last nearly four years.

“Let me be very clear, my presidency would not be a continuation of Joe
Biden’s presidency. And like every new president that comes into office, I
will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh new
ideas,” she told Baier. “I represent a new generation of leadership.”

She noted that she has not spent the majority of her career in Washington,
as Biden has.

When Baier pressed her on why one of her campaign promises is to “turn
the page” when she has been the sitting vice president for more than
years, Harris pivoted to talking about Trump.

“Well first of all, turning the page from the last decade in which we’ve
been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that
has been designed and implemented to divide our country and have
Americans literally point fingers at each other,” she said.

Baier then reiterated that she has been vice president for three and a half
years, questioning why people think the country is on the wrong track.

“Come on, you and I both know what I’m talking about,” she said.
Baier responded, “What are you talking about?”
“Over the last decade it is clear to me…he is unfit to serve, he is unstable,
he is dangerous and people are exhausted,” she said, referring to Trump.

Harris fields question on transgender prisoners

Baier played a Trump campaign ad that argues Harris supports taxpayer
funded sex changes. He then asked if she still supports inmates having
access to medical procedures to transition to another gender.

“I will follow the law and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed,”
she said, referring to a New York Times report that people in the federal
prison system were provided gender-affirming care under the Trump
administration.

“I think frankly that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit of throwing
stones when you’re living in a glass house,” she added. “You have to take
responsibility for what happened in your administration.

When Baier pressed if she would advocate for taxpayer funding for
transgender surgeries, she said “I would follow the law.” She added that
the Trump ads are an effort to “try to create a sense of fear in the voters.”

Harris sidesteps Biden’s mental acuity

Baier asked the vice president when she first noticed when Biden’s
“mental facilities appeared diminished.”

Harris, in turn, defended the president by saying “he has the judgment
and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important
decisions on behalf of the American people.”

But, she quickly added that Biden is not on the ballot, while Trump is,
suggesting that it is instead the former president who is unfit for office.
Harris has been criticized by Republicans for staying loyal to Biden while
he was facing a pressure campaign from other top Democrats to drop out
of the 2024 race, which he ultimately did.

“Trump is on the ballot,” she said.

Baier replied, “you met with him at least once a week for the past three
and a half years… you didn’t have any concerns?”

She sidestepped the question, saying, “I think the American people have a
concern about Donald Trump,” adding that Trump critics, including those
who worked for him, have said he is unfit and dangerous.


Responses:
[442625] [442598] [442602] [442601]


442625


Date: October 17, 2024 at 06:50:26
From: The Hierophant, [DNS_Address]
Subject: And, YOUR candidate?


djt - like he doesn't
"sidestepped questions"
and "not respond to a question or pivot on an answer, at
times
talking over others'"????
He's a dang EXPERT at doing these tactics!


Responses:
None


442598


Date: October 16, 2024 at 18:33:41
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: 5 takeaways from a contentious Bret Baier, Harris interview

URL: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4937852-former-harris-aide-baier-interview/


Former Harris aide says Baier pulled interview questions from ‘Trump/Vance press release’
by Tara Suter - 10/16/24 8:03 PM ET

Former Harris aide Symone Sanders-Townsend said Wednesday that Fox News anchor Bret Baier “pulled questions” for his interview with Vice President Harris from “a proverbial Trump/Vance press release,” hitting Baier over his “tone” throughout the interview.

“On the tone, I have sat in the room for a number of interviews with VP Harris and they have been tough,” Sanders-Townsend said in a post on the social platform X. “I’ve never witnessed what I witnessed tonight though. The interviewer wasn’t themselves — instead he was rude, misleading and pulled questions straight out of a proverbial Trump/Vance press release.”

“The best part is, VP’s response was simply to match his energy, stick to her why of the interview and not take the bait,” she added.

During the Wednesday interview, Harris and Baier clashed for a long time over immigration. The Fox News anchor started the interview by asking the vice president the number of immigrants that had crossed the border during her time in her current role. Harris acknowledged immigration was “a topic of discussion that people want to rightly have,” but Baier cut in to point out that it was 6 million immigrants.

Baier also pressed the vice president on the Biden administration’s decision to stop a policy from the Trump era that made potential asylum-seekers stay in Mexico to wait for the results of their case in U.S. immigration court.

Harris mentioned that the first proposed piece of legislation President Biden put forward after his inauguration was on immigration, but Baier also noted that the bill didn’t come up for a vote while Democrats held the House and Senate.

“We recognized from day one that — on the point of this being your first question — it is a priority for us as a nation and for the American people, and our focus has been on fixing a problem,” Harris said.


Responses:
[442602] [442601]


442602


Date: October 16, 2024 at 19:48:43
From: old timer, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: 5 takeaways from a contentious Bret Baier, Harris interview


possible, why else would he spend half the interview asking about
immigration? not like it’s a big issue for voters or something she’s
previously been asked about. probably caught her totally by
surprise. amazing she spent that long talking without giving an actual
answer on immigration

what did you think when he said george clooney said biden wasn’t the
same man he was before and asked when she noticed his cognitive
decline? that’s a question that people have been asked since the june
debate


Responses:
None


442601


Date: October 16, 2024 at 19:27:55
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: 5 takeaways from a contentious Bret Baier, Harris interview




Sorry I missed the interview, sounds like she did great
.




Responses:
None


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