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    • VP put pressure on Harris and immigration
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    VP put pressure on Harris and immigration

    Vaseline Posted on

    Vice President Kamala Harris and Fox News host Bret Baier spoke in a combative interview on Wednesday 20 days before the election.

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    WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris said if elected her presidency would be “not a continuation of Joe Biden’s” during a combative interview Wednesday on Fox News, as the Democratic nominee expands her reach among Republican voters.

    Twenty days before the election, Harris tried to defend her record on immigration and the economy during her first-ever formal appearance on Fox News, known for its conservative commentators. At several points, Fox News political anchor Bret Baier and Harris spoke over each other, making for tense exchanges throughout the roughly 30-minute segment.

    Harris joined Baier in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, shortly after delivering afternoon remarks at a rally in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, where she was joined by more than 100 Republicans supporting her campaign.

    Here are five key moments from her interview:

    Fiery discussion about migration at the southern border

    Right out of the gate, Harris and Baier got into a fiery exchange when the Fox News host asked how many undocumented immigrants have entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden-Harris administration. Harris did not provide a number.

    ‘Just a number: do you think it’s 1 million? Three million?’ Baier asked.

    Election Updates: Harris sits for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier

    Harris responded, “Bret, let’s get to the point, okay? The point is, we have a broken immigration system that needs to be fixed.”

    Baier interrupted, citing estimates that as many as six million undocumented immigrants may have been released into the province.

    “I started to answer,” Harris said, as Baier spoke of the vice president, pointing to executive actions President Joe Biden took early in his administration to undo former President Donald Trump’s border policies.

    Migration at the southern border — where Harris made a campaign visit to Arizona last month — remains one of the key issues of the election. Harris said, “I’m so sorry for her loss” when Baier showed a video of a mother describing how her daughter was killed by an undocumented immigrant who was released into the US.

    “Our focus was on solving a problem,” Harris said, adding that Senate Republicans, at Trump’s urging, this year blocked bipartisan border legislation that would have created new restrictions on asylum seekers and added additional Border Patrol agents.

    “Let me finish,” Harris told Baier. “Donald Trump heard about that bill and said they should scrap it because he preferred to address a problem rather than solve a problem.”

    Harris revisits some immigration positions

    Harris indicated that she no longer supports some of the left-wing immigration policies she supported as a candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, such as allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for driver’s licenses and receive taxpayer-funded health care.

    “That was five years ago, and I am very clear that I will follow the law,” Harris said when Baier asked if she still supports these proposals.

    She also said she no longer supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings — a policy she also supported as a candidate in 2019 before dropping out of the primary.

    “I don’t believe in decriminalizing border crossings, and I didn’t do that as vice president. I will not do that as president,” Harris said.

    ‘It needs to be studied’: Harris says she remains open to reparations in interview with Charlamagne Tha God: 5 Moments

    Transgender surgeries for people in prison

    Harris said she would follow the law when Baier pressed her about past statements — seen in a recent Trump campaign ad — offering support for people in prison accessing medical care for gender-affirming surgeries.

    “I will follow the law, and it is a law that Donald Trump has actually followed,” Harris said.

    Harris referenced a New York Times report, published earlier Wednesday, that detailed how Trump appointees at the Bureau of Prisons provided various gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, to some inmates who requested it. Bureau officials said in a letter to Congress in 2018 that they are required by federal law to pay for a detainee’s surgery if it is deemed medically necessary.

    The Trump ad ends with the line: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

    “Honestly, that Trump campaign ad is a bit like throwing rocks if you live in a glass house,” Harris said.

    The Trump campaign responded to the Times story by saying the former president never advocated for the operations.

    “Well, you have to take responsibility for what happened in your administration,” Harris said.

    A break from Biden

    Harris delivered her strongest break with Biden of the 2024 campaign, arguing that if elected she would not be a continuation of the outgoing president.

    Baier played video clips from Harris’ appearances last week on “The View” and Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show,” in which she gave no specific answers about how her presidency would be different from Biden’s four years in office.

    “Let me be very clear: my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency,” Harris told Baier. “And like any new president who comes to power, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh new ideas.”

    Harris said she represents “a new generation of leadership,” noting that she has not spent most of her career in Washington. She said she is “inviting ideas” from Republicans, but also from the business community. And she pointed to her campaign policies that differ from Biden’s, such as her plans to boost affordable housing, offer tax credits to small business owners and provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.

    Harris defended her campaign slogan – “turning the page” – when Baier suggested the message conflicts with that of a sitting vice president.

    “We are turning the page on the past decade of being saddled with Donald Trump’s brand of rhetoric designed and implemented to divide our country and literally have Americans pointing fingers at each other,” Harris said.

    Harris, pressured about Biden’s eligibility, is sticking with Trump

    Harris defended Biden’s mental acuity on Wednesday, saying he has the “judgment and experience” to carry out the duties of president when Baier asked Harris about his mental abilities.

    “Joe Biden is not on the ballot. Donald Trump does,” Harris said.

    Biden, 81, dropped out of the 2024 election in July after a disastrous debate performance raised concerns about his mental fitness and age.

    “You met him at least once a week for three and a half years. Didn’t you worry about that?’ Baier asked.

    ‘Are you thinking about sitting outside?’: Obama calls on black men to hesitate against Harris

    But Harris returned to Trump. The vice president has increasingly characterized him as unfit for office, unstable and dangerous. The Harris campaign has taken advantage of Trump’s refusal to release his medical records so far and his reluctance to debate Harris for a second time.

    In the vice president’s most impassioned moment of the interview, she fired back at Trump for his repeated threats to go after the “enemy from within.”

    “He’s talking about locking people up because they don’t agree with him,” Harris said. “This is a democracy, and in a democracy the president of the United States should be willing to deal with criticism without saying he would lock people up for it.”

    The Trump campaign immediately criticized Harris’ performance on Fox News, saying she “couldn’t give a straight answer to a single question because she has no answers.”

    “Kamala Harris’ interview with Bret Baier was a TRAIN WRECK,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement.

    But Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign’s communications director, told reporters that the campaign had achieved what they hoped.

    “She was able to reach an audience that likely wasn’t exposed to the arguments she made along the way and she was also able to show her strength by holding her own in the face of a hostile interviewer,” Fallon said.

    Reach Joey Garrison at X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison

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