Kamala Harris came fishing for Republican votes in choppy waters – the airwaves of Fox News. Fox News, meanwhile, tried to sink her boat.

This unusual encounter speaks to the raw electoral math in this American campaign: Harris should add some of these viewers to compensate for potential losses other voters.

Her message to normally right-wing voters is that she is a safe bet that will protect American democracy; many Republicans support her; she is more stable than Trump, and she is focused on moderate, bread-and-butter issues.

In other words, she hoped to cut through the Fox News fog with the same reports from her summer conference speechand another event she organized Wednesday with Republicans.

LOOK | Kamala Harris sat down with Fox News. Here’s how it went:

Harris courts Republican voters in heated Fox News interview | Canada tonight

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris had a combative first interview with Fox News on Wednesday, sparring over immigration policy and changing policy positions while claiming that if elected she would not represent a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency .

It was an extraordinary programming choice considering Harris rarely gave interviews early in her campaign, let alone into the proverbial lion’s den; Trump himself has done many more hostile interviews, albeit not so much lately.

Her interviewer was Bret Baier, a news anchor who has done just that occasionally wavy of Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Trump’s golfing buddy teed off at Harris.

The interviewer pressed her in a way she has never been pressured before as a presidential candidate: unrelenting, on topics seemingly tailor-made to remind Fox News viewers why they don’t like her.

Illegal migration; government-funded gender changes for prisoners; its left-wing promises of the past; President Joe Biden’s mental decline. The Fox host pressed her on these topics – and, unlike recently CNN interviewerhe continued to follow.

It started when Baier asked how many illegal border crossers had been released pending their asylum cases; when Harris started giving her usual response, that Trump sabotaged an immigration bill, he pushed back, citing dozens of actions the current government itself relaxed the border early on.

“Can I please respond further? You need to let me finish,” Harris responded when Baier interrupted her accusations against Trump.

That essentially set the pattern for the next 25 minutes.

Icy exchanges

Baier then played a video of a grieving mother whose daughter was killed by an undocumented migrant and asked if she would apologize. Harris said she regretted the loss; Baier again pushed for an apology; Harris reiterated that she felt terrible.

On the topic of when Harris realized Biden had lost a step cognitively, Baier asked, “You weren’t worried?” Harris defended her boss and turned the subject to Trump.

Harris tried to allude to how unfit Trump is for power, referencing the numerous Republicans, including military members, and members of Trump’s team, who have supported her, or even referencing Trump. as a fascist.

“He’s unfit to serve, he’s unstable, he’s dangerous,” Harris said.

Baier called that an insult to half the country: ‘Are they misled, those 50 percent? Are they stupid?’ Baier said, referring to Trump supporters.

Harris defended himself: “Oh God, I would never say that.”

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In fact, she said, Trump is the one who demeans and belittles people. Trump is the one who refers to opponents as the enemy withinshe said. He’s the one who did that talked, for yearsabout turning the American army against Americans.

Baier pushed back by playing another video clip – this one from Trump and flattering to him; it removed a soundbite in which Trump used inflammatory language about his opponents, which Harris accused him of.

A spokesperson for Harris later posted the two different versions of the clip on the social media platform X, showing what Fox left out.

The polls are moving in Trump’s direction

To the interviewer’s earlier point, Trump does indeed have solid support. In fact, the polls have trembled somewhat in Trump’s favor lately, within the margin of error.

Harris still leads the popular vote in most national surveys, but not all: on Wednesday, Harris was too five ahead in a poll by a renowned pollster, Marist, and two behind That’s according to a poll from Fox News’ renowned, bipartisan polling team.

The swing state surveys Are fewer advantageous Unpleasant Harris.

Whether or not she wins could come down to the basic math of whether enough college-educated moderate Republicans, especially women, change her pathto offset the potential loss of non-college-educated voters of color.

On the same day, in the state where Harris did that interview, Republicans were around Latino-majority cityregistering new voters on a busy street.

Many motorists honked in support or gave a thumbs up as they passed a pro-Trump registration booth on 7th Street in Allentown.

In another nearby swing county, also with a growing Hispanic population, the local Republican chairman emphasized that he is seeing similar movements in his area.

Pete Begley described some new registration numbers as evidence that his party is now the election favorite. He then cited Harris’ new media schedule.

“Kamala Harris is now doing interviews with Fox News. This is desperation,” said Begley, party chairman in Monroe County, Penn., near Philadelphia.

“This is a woman who went, what, 60 days without a press conference? So they’re panicking and they’re panicking for one reason: Trump is on the rise.”

The evidence for this is less clear. What is clear is that Harris wanted some former Trump voters to listen to her.

As Wednesday’s interview ended and Baier cut her off, Harris quickly invited viewers to go to kamalaharris.com and view 80 pages of her policies on affordable housing, small businesses and the military.

“That’s why we invited you here,” Baier said, after an interview that was about none of that.

Afterwards, a Fox News panel called Harris evasive. To be fair, she avoided the content of some of Baier’s questions, starting with that boundary exchange.

But the panel’s Democrat, Harold Ford Jr., insisted she likely jumped ahead just by showing up. He said these types of exchanges benefit the country because people want to hear how she jettisoned some of her 2020 campaign policies.

“Come on Fox, getting in front of our audience is the right thing to do,” Ford said.