Kamala Harris Fox News interview LIVE updates: Democratic presidential nominee gives first interview with US TV network three weeks before US election

Will that combative 30 minutes between Baier and Harris change the minds of any Republican voters? It’s very hard to say.

With the race so tight, it is likely the Democrats will continue to appear frequently on Fox News in the lead-up to November 5.

Fox News in New York City.Credit: AP

Since the Democratic National Convention in August, roughly twice as many Democrats have been on Fox than during the same period in President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, which was more often than when Hillary Clinton was the nominee in 2016, according to the network.

Whether to ignore Fox or seize opportunities to change the viewpoints of some audience members has long been a subject of internal debate among Democrats.

Biden didn’t make a Fox-specific appearance during his campaign. Clinton made one appearance during her primary campaign and another in mid-summer 2016.

Much of the interview was spent on favourite Republican talking points like immigration and transgender rights, but Kamala Harris spent a fair chunk of her time calling out Donald Trump’s behaviour.

Harris repeatedly brought up Trump’s comment in a recent interview with Fox News, in which he floated the idea of turning the military against his political “enemies”.

Bret Baier’s interview with Kamala Harris.

“I think the bigger problem are the people from within,” Trump said. “We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics.”

Instead of playing that clip during the Harris interview, Fox interviewer Bret Baier instead played a clip of Trump defending himself.

“They were saying I was like threatening, I’m not threatening anybody, they’re the ones doing the threatening,” he said.

“It’s called weaponisation of government.”

Harris wasn’t having it, and she quickly fired back at Baier.

“I’m sorry and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy within … that’s not what you just showed,” she said.

“You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military against the American people.”

Democrats are sharing this clip widely on social media.

“Let me be very clear – my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency.”

That was one of the key moments in this interview, in my view.

Harris has pitched herself as an agent of change and someone who could give voters a “new way forward”, but many are sceptical about how much change there will actually be.

After all, the vice president is still part of the current Biden administration. She has so far surrounded herself with many former aides to Biden, and most of her plans seem to simply build on the agenda she has spent the past four years advocating with the president.

This answer was the clearest she has been in making the case to voters that she wants to be her own president.

That was Harris’ first interview with Fox, and given how often she was interrupted, you wonder if it will be her last. Until now, the risk-averse Democrat has preferred making her case with scripted rally speeches, highly managed campaign stops, television ads and fairly friendly interviews.

However, the Democratic nominee knew she had to ramp things up this week as the race hits its final stretch, and as polls show the race is too close to call.

Fox News host Bret Baier.Credit: Fox News

After just 30 minutes the interview has finished, with Harris struggling to outline her policy platform as Baier wraps up.

While she smiled as she thanked Baier for having her on, Harris appeared frustrated for much of the interview which was marred by near constant interruption as the pair talked over each other.

Baier interrupted Harris throughout the interview.Credit: Fox News

The Trump campaign has already jumped on the chance to label the interview a “train wreck”.

“Kamala was angry, defensive and once again abdicated any responsibility for the problems Americans are facing. She couldn’t give a straight answer to a single question because she has no answers,” Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Baier is now asking about when Harris about when she knew Biden’s mental fitness was not up to him continuing as president.

Harris said she has watched Biden in the Oval Office to the Situation Room saying “he has the judgment and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people”.

Harris and President Joe Biden in Pittsburgh in September.Credit: AP

She adds that “Joe Biden is not on the ballot and Donald Trump is” before being interrupted. Baier references George Clooney’s comments about seeing Biden at a fundraiser and him not being the same man he was, asking Harris if she had concerns at any time.

Harris however wants only to focus on Trump.

“I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump, which is why the people who know him best, including leaders of our national security community ... people who worked with him in the Oval Office ... have all said he is unfit and dangerous and should never be president of the United States again.”

Harris is asked about her campaign slogan “turning the page”. Baier asks what Americans should be turning the page from, given she has been in office for the past four years.

“Turning the page from the last decade in which we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed to divide our country, and have Americans literally point fingers at each other,” she said.

Baier claims Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. He follows it with asking: why is half the country supporting him if as she claims, he is so destructive?

“This is an election for president of the US it’s not supposed to be easy,” she said.

Harris brings up Trump’s comments that he would use the military to go after his political opponents.

“This is a democracy and in a democracy the president of the United States should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying hell lock people up for saying it,” she said.

Baier asked Harris about attack ads Trump has placed in every swing state, which centre on comments she made in 2019 in which she said she supported transgender prisoners having access to gender-affirming surgery.

The ad ends with a narrator saying: “Kamala is for they/them; Trump is for you.”

Kamala Harris on Fox News. Credit: Fox News

This is an issue that REALLY resonates in the US, including among Latinos and black voters, who have traditionally been the Democrats’ base.

Every time Trump has a rally, the biggest cheers always come when he starts talking about keeping transgender athletes out of women’s sports, and “keeping men out of women’s bathrooms”.

There’s a reason his campaign has spent millions going after Harris on this topic – because it’s working.

This is going to be an interesting hour. Bret Baier seems impatient because Harris has a tendency to take her time getting to the point, while Harris seems annoyed that he keeps interrupting her and rushing her answers.

That said, this topic – immigration – is always going to be difficult for the VP due to Biden’s decision to rescind Trump-era policies as soon as he came to office.

This included halting construction of the border wall and no longer forcing asylum seekers to be sent back to Mexico to await immigration proceedings, which compounded the crisis we now see in America.

The interview is still on illegal immigration.

Baier played a clip of the mother of murdered 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray blaming the government for her daughter’s murder at the hands of two illegal Venezuelan immigrants.

“Because of the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policy catch and release … they would take my daughter Jocelyn Nungaray’s life,” Alexis Nungaray said in the clip.

Harris gave her condolences to the family.

When asked if illegal immigrants should be allowed to get driver’s licenses, Harris said: “We must support and enforce federal law and that’s exactly what we will do … I do not believe in decriminalising border crossing.”