The Daily Populous Friday October 18th, 2024 night edition
Authored by nj.com and submitted by InternetPopular3679

Fox News anchor Bret Baier is taking criticism from all sides:

— Donald Trump supporters are screaming that that the anchor from the Trump-friendly cable giant wasn’t tough enough in his hourlong interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday night;

— Democratic supporters have called him rude for interrupting Harris many times during her answers;

— Media critics are pointing out that Fox deceptively edited a clip of Trump — and were fact-checked by Harris in real time;

— And many, in all circles, are claiming that Baier, in an attempted takedown of Harris, was no match for her.

Even Baier seemed to acknowledge that Harris won the day.

“I think she had a mission that she wanted to do,” Baier said after the interview. “Maybe she wanted to have a viral moment or pushback. She came to Fox News and she wanted to have a go-after-Donald-Trump viral moment that plays on a lot of other channels and on social media. She may have gotten that.”

Harris received rave reviews from across the political world.

You can watch extensive clips from the interview here.

Former Republican Congressman and Jan. 6 Committee member Adam Kinzinger: “She went into the lion’s den and took them on and stood tall. Fox tried their bs gotchas in their rightwing reality, and she turned everything deftly back to Trump and held him accountable in his own safe space. She did not let them bait her at all - strong, confident, epic. She totally schooled Bret Baier.”

Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson: “Kamala came to Fox to stack bodies.”

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin tweeted: “He got his ass kicked.”

Billionaire and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, who is an economic adviser to Harris’ campaign and a one-time Trump supporter who is warning against the ex-president, gave Harris rave reviews:

“The beautiful thing about the Bret Baier interview is that Kamala Harris understood and responded to each question,” Cuban tweeted. “She used examples of policies. She gave real world context. When Bret went hard after her, she didn’t call him names. She didn’t quit the interview. She didn’t make things up. She never once complained the questions were tough. She never played the victim card. She didn’t lose her temper.

“She didn’t take the bait to diminish or talk down to Trump supporters. She stood up to him with force and never backed down.

“He has been the President and campaigning for 9 years. Kamala Harris has caught up to him in just 100 days. That speaks volumes. It’s why people want to vote for her. That’s why so many Republicans and Independents are supporting her. She is everything her opponent is not and will never be. Strong, Smart and Measured.”

In the most controversial part of the interview, Baier played a clip of Trump insisting that liberals were the enemy because he has been investigated “more than Al Capone.” When Baier asked for Harris’ reaction, she pounced:

“With all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the ‘enemy within’ that he has repeated when he’s speaking about the American people,” Harris said. “That’s not what you just showed.”

Baier tried to interrupt, but Harris kept going.

“You didn’t show that,” she said. “You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy. The President of the United States should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he’d lock people up for doing it.”

In the end, it turned out that Fox had intentionally edited the same clip to remove Trump’s comments about “the enemy within,” and got caught in real time by Harris.

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill: “If anyone is trying to figure out who is stronger, Kamala is going on Fox News. And even the MAGA folks know he would never ever ever be brave enough to do an interview on MSNBC.”

McCaskill also reacted to Baier’s frequent interruptions:”I figured Bret Baier would be tough. I didn’t think he would be downright rude and disrespectful. The VP did great. She is strong. He is scared.”

Jeff Greenfield, an author and 30-year political analyst, tweeted: “I was expecting tough questions and persistent follow-ups. I was not expecting Baier to become a combatant. In that role, he did Harris a real favor.”

Harris campaign adviser David Plouffe: “Kamala Harris (strong) handled an ambush Fox interview light-years better than the hash Donald Trump (unstable) made of the Fox pep rally disguised as a town hall.”

Even Fox News host Dana Perino admitted that Harris was “fairly effective” when she was getting her points across about Trump. Fox colleague Brit Hume said Harris was “combative and energetic and she certainly landed some blows on Donald Trump.”

Author David Rothkopf: “Time after time after time Kamala Harris has been tested and triumphed with flying colors. She is a much stronger candidate today than when her campaign started.” He added: “Fox prepared a warm bath for Trump and an ambush for the VP. She emerged stronger while both Trump and Fox revealed their profound weakness.”

Many on Twitter/X, like James Fallow, wondered how Trump would fair in a similar setting: “When watching Kamala Harris with Bret Baier on Fox just now, imagine for a second Donald Trump trying to answer questions for half an hour from Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O’Donnell.”

Former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor: “Kamala Harris did a great job on Fox News and showed that she can take tough questions from anyone. Also Bret Baier reminded us for the umpteenth time that he might go to all the DC book parties, but when chips are down, he’s a Murdoch/GOP employee and will do their bidding.”

Trump said on Truth Social that he would have preferred a more hard-hitting journalist conduct the Harris interview, saying Baier “is often very soft on those in the ‘cocktail circuit’ Left.”

After the interview, Baier said, “I think she had a mission that she wanted to do. Maybe she wanted to have a viral moment or pushback. She came to Fox News and she wanted to have a go-after-Donald-Trump viral moment that plays on a lot of other channels and on social media. She may have gotten that.”

Former New York Congressman Max Rose called it “a home run, because she sent the one message that needs to be sent, which was, ‘I will go anywhere at any time and show the courage necessary to speak to every American,’ because that’s what a real president does. The primary critique against her prior to this point was that she was not doing enough interviews. No one thought that the Fox News interview was going to go swimmingly every step of the way. Everyone knew it would be adversarial, but she showed exactly what she needed to show, which was that she is a leader, ready to be president on Day One.”

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DigglerD on October 17th, 2024 at 13:47 UTC »

This kind of interview was also harmful to Fox. She mentioned things their viewers have likely never heard.

If they did even the most cursory digging, they might find they’ve been lied to.

code_archeologist on October 17th, 2024 at 13:41 UTC »

And she did it on Fox News to people who would, under regular circumstances, be Trump voters. But like Pete Buttigieg has explained on why he appears on Fox, "you never know who else is in the room." There were people watching that interview who may not like Trump but were voting for him because they have only heard the caricature of Harris that the network presents. They are now having doubts about that choice... and in an election where some states may be decided by a couple thousand votes, that can be the difference between winning and losing.

CaptainNoBoat on October 17th, 2024 at 13:38 UTC »

Turns out crazy concepts like: pointing out Trump literally said he would use the military on U.S. citizens is damaging. Who woulda thought?