The verdict by left-wing news outlets on the Bret Baier interview on Fox News with Kamala Harris was preordained. "Embarrassing," claims the Daily Beast of Baier's performance. "Partisanship comes through very slyly," writes the Hollywood Reporter.
Unfortunately for these and most other left-wing commentators, there's a transcript available. Instead of concentrating on Harris's answers, HotAir's Ed Morrissey decided to examine every single question Baier asked Harris during the 25-minute interview.
Morrissey got a transcript of the interview on FNC's "Special Report with Bret Baier," "Let's assess these for substance and fairness on a firm evidentiary basis rather than spin and desperation," writes Ed.
You can read the complete compilation of interview questions that Ed pulled together here.
The left is making a big deal of the softball questions directed at Trump during his interview with Baier last year compared to the "tense" interview with Harris that Baier conducted this week.
“In key moments, Baier’s interviewing put Trump on his heels, forcing him to formulate slipshod excuses for his conduct,” Erik Wemple of the Washington Post wrote after the interview aired in June 2023.
Hardly a partisan lapdog, then. At the time, left-wing media praised Baier for being tough on Trump.
“Baier repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s falsehoods and exposed his vulnerabilities on key conservative priorities,” Axios reported afterward.
At times, Baier sounded exasperated, as when Trump claimed he won the 2020 election. “You lost the 2020 election,” Baier said, in a tone that suggested he was tired of the lie. “There were recounts in all the swing states,” the anchor added.
At other points, Baier cracked jokes and agreed with Trump, betraying a familiarity with the former president. Baier and Harris, on the other hand, had never met before Wednesday. “It’s good to meet you,” Harris said at the conclusion of the interview.
Baier was more animated when questioning Harris, as if he knew that Fox’s conservative base wanted to see her squirm in her seat.
Overall, Baier interrupted Harris at least 38 times in 27 minutes, about twice as often as Baier interjected with Trump (at least 28 times in 36 minutes).
Could it be that Trump wasn't dodging questions while Harris refused to answer? Is that why Baier interrupted Harris, trying to get her to give a straight answer to a question she obviously knew the answer to?
Bret Baier was as fair to Harris as Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait was during his interview with the former president at the Chicago Economic Club this week.
Ed Morrissey's stellar work in compiling every question asked by Baier to debunk the left's claim of unfairness challenges critics of Baier to find the problems in the questions asked.
Critics of Baier need to look at this list and find the questions that are not appropriate to ask a presidential candidate, especially an incumbent in the current White House for the last three-plus years. Every single question here relates to either Harris' publicly stated positions over the past five years, the policies and performance of the Biden-Harris White House, and what she would do if elected president. There isn't a personal-scandal or gotcha question in this; every single question -- and that includes the question of Biden's cognitive decline, which is the reason Harris is the nominee -- is substantive and fair.
Those who claim Baier conducted hackery in his questions, and his efforts to pin down a sitting VP and major-party presidential nominee for the answers, needs to explain how any of these questions are unfair, let alone a significant number of them. That explanation has to include the context of Harris' strategy for doing the interview in the first place, which was ostensibly to appeal to the Fox News audience by discussing the issues that matter to them.
Baier's critics aren't operating out of principle by casting him as a hack. They're reacting out of desperation from having seen that Harris can't answer even basic questions about what she believes or why people should support her.
The left's primary gripe against Baier is that they didn't like the fact that the Fox host treated Harris the way the left-wing media treated Trump. They believe the helpful, gentle questioning of "The View" women should have been the journalistic standard in interviewing Harris.
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