This Thursday morning, Kamala Harris faced the most uncomfortable interview of the entire campaign on the conservative network Fox News, Donald Trump’s media bastion. Three weeks before the elections, the Democrat has entered the lion’s den to silence criticism from Republicans for the lack of interviews granted since she became the candidate and to try to reach undecided Republican voters. “My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Bien’s,” Harris assured journalist Bret Baier.
“Like every new president who comes to the Oval Office, I will bring my life experience, my professional experience and new ideas; I represent a new generation of leadership, as someone who has not spent his entire career in Washington,” Harris said. The vice president, who spent a good part of her career in California as attorney general, has thus sought to distance herself from the idea that the Democratic party embodies the “Washington elites” against which Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, intend to fight.
Never before has Harris marked as much distance from Joe Biden’s presidency as she has done tonight. Although his campaign has been built on showing himself as the party of change, he had always taken pride in the legacy of the Biden administration. The shift not only seeks to get closer to Republican voters, but also to dismantle attacks by the Republican Party, who remember how Harris has had three and a half years in the vice presidency to promote her current electoral promises.
That he has sought to distance himself even further from Biden does not mean that he has renounced him. When Braier asked her about the president’s health and if before he resigned she had not had “any type of concern” about him, the vice president reminded her that Biden “is no longer on the electoral ticket, Trump is.”
“I think Americans are worried about Donald Trump, including the people who know him best, including leaders of our national security service who have spoken out about it. Even people who worked for him in the Oval Office and who have been in the Crisis Room with him have said that he is not prepared for the presidency, that he is dangerous and that he should not be president again. Including his vice president, which is why the position was now vacant to choose a new partner in the electoral race,” Harris said after a tug-of-war with Baier. A dynamic that has marked the dynamics of the conversation.
The key moment, and where Harris has shown the most willingness to reach out to Republican voters and Trump followers, has been when Baier has tried to portray her as a person who considers the tycoon’s voters “stupid.” “I would never say that about the American people and, in fact, if you listen to Donald Trump or watch any of his rallies, he is the one who tries to belittle American citizens. He is the one who speaks of an “internal enemy”. An “enemy within” referring to the American population, suggesting that he would turn the military against the Americans.
After Harris’ response, Baier returned to the fray, showing a clip in which Trump was asked about this question. “I have not threatened anyone,” the mogul says in the video and Harris has responded: “Bret, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, this clip was not the one in which he has been talking about the “enemy within” that he has repeated. when he talks about Americans. This is not what you have shown.” The response, as usual, has been accompanied by more interruptions from the journalist.
The presenter has dedicated the first 10 minutes of the interview to the weak points of Harris’ campaign, and to which Trump clings most: border management. As usual, the Democrat has come forward by pointing out that “the first law we presented to Congress” was the border law and recalled that it was Trump who instigated its blockade. Harris managed to finish the sentence after an aggressive Baier interrupted her by constantly questioning her. “Please, you have to let me finish,” Harris calmly insisted. “I am responding to the issue you are raising, and I would like to finish.”
Baier has also brought up the names of women Trump frequently cites at his rallies as victims of undocumented immigrants. The names are also frequently mentioned in the programming of Fox News, which does extensive coverage of everything that happens at the border. “I am very sorry for your loss, but let’s talk about what is happening right now,” responded Harris, who quickly redirected to the Republican blockade that the border bill suffered: “If the text had been passed nine years ago months, it would have been nine months since we would have had more agents at the border to make sure that future damage did not happen.”
Harris also wanted to make it clear that he is not in favor of decriminalizing irregular border crossings with Mexico. “I don’t believe in decriminalizing border crossings. I haven’t done that as vice president. And I will not do it as president,” she stated.
The interview on the Fox network is part of the Harris campaign’s strategy to penetrate Republicans who are undecided or who remain unconvinced by Trump. Before sitting down with Baier, the Democrat held a rally in Bucks County (Pennsylvania), where more than 100 Republicans participated in the event, including Adam Kinzinger, a former congressman and member of the committee that investigated the attack on September 6. January to the US Capitol.
“No matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for all of you in this campaign,” said the vice president. Pennsylvania is one of the seven key states at stake on November 5 and will have the final say in who sits in the Oval Office. That Harris is also putting more effort into reaching more conservative voters is significant, considering the stagnation it suffers between two important groups of voters: black men and Latino people. Although Harris still manages to garner the majority of support within these groups, Trump is managing to make an impact. Especially among Latinos.
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