DETROIT — Vice President Kamala Harris will sit down with Fox News’ Bret Baier Wednesday as she steps out of the comfort of what has so far been a relatively friendly series of interviews since she became the Democratic nominee this summer.
Harris and Baier will tape the interview in Pennsylvania, where the vice president will be holding a campaign event Wednesday, and it will air in full in the 6 p.m. ET hour.
With three weeks until Election Day, Harris’ interview with Baier will mark her first sit-down with Fox News — and her first interview with a conservative news outlet since she became the Democratic nominee.
Harris, who has sought to introduce herself to voters in her shortened presidential campaign, has used rallies, small stops with voters and television ads to make her case to the electorate. But doing sit-downs with tough interviewers has not been among the strategies her campaign has favored.
She recently sat for an interview with Bill Whitaker of “60 Minutes” and spoke with three reporters at an event hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists — both of which required Harris to answer difficult questions about her record and policy proposals.
Harris has done far more interviews in softer settings — from ABC’s “The View” to taking questions from MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle.
Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena on October 14, 2024 in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Senior campaign adviser Ian Sams told Fox News on Monday that Harris was “looking forward to talking and answering tough questions” in the interview with Baier, who has developed a reputation for pressing both Democrats and Republicans.
Some Democratic operatives see the choice to appear on Fox News as a welcome one.
Though Harris is sure to face difficult questions, the appearance may give her a chance to “clean up” some recent missteps, said Larry Ceisler, a Democratic public affairs executive in Pennsylvania, who cited the moment when Harris told “The View” co-hosts there was “not a thing that comes to mind” when asked what she would have done differently from President Joe Biden over the last four years.
“I don’t think you can do that,” Ceisler told ABC News. “You have to have some disagreements. You can’t be in lockstep on everything.”
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, in Erie, Pa., Oct. 14, 2024.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
The decision to sit down with Fox News might give the Harris campaign a chance to turn the criticism it received for its lack of mainstream media interviews on its head — and use the same argument to attack former President Donald Trump.
The interview will serve as “a stark reminder that we’re not seeing Donald Trump do very many interviews,” Sams said.
It may also give Harris the opportunity to push back on the impressions that regular viewers of Fox News may have of her.
“She needs to go on there because she needs to show these Fox viewers that she’s not the devil incarnate,” said Ceisler.
Trump himself has often picked friendly terrain for one-on-one interviews, including long-form podcasts popular with young men, a constituency with which he is gaining ground.
He occasionally holds news conferences, where he fields questions from a range of national and local reporters. On Tuesday, he participated in an interview with Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief John Micklethwait at the Chicago Economic Club
