Kamala Harris has agreed to Fox News interview amid signs her support is fading
Kamala Harris will become the first Democratic Party presidential candidate to appear on Fox since Hillary Clinton in 2016, when she takes questions from anchor Bret Baier on Thursday AEDT.
Kamala Harris has broken Democratic Party tradition by agreeing to an interview with Fox News, amid further evidence her honeymoon with American voters is fading.
The Vice President will become the first Democratic Party presidential candidate to appear on Fox since Hillary Clinton in 2016, when she takes questions from anchor Bret Baier, widely considered the most impartial of Fox anchors, at little before 6pm on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) in Philadelphia.
The Harris campaign decision to appear on the Republican-leaning network came amid a slew of disappointing poll readings for the Democratic Party candidate, who is slightly trailing Donald Trump in six of the seven key swing states tracked by RealClear Politics.
Three major US polls released on Sunday (Monday AEDT) each revealed a significant decline in Ms Harris’s lead. Her previous five percentage point advantage shrank to zero in a now neck and neck race according to NBC’s poll of 1,000 voters conducted in early October, which gauged the two candidates’ support at 48 per cent each, Trump’s highest level of support yet.
Separately, CBS/YouGov found the Republican was ahead of Harris among independent voters, 51 per cent to 47 per cent, a reversal of the previous poll’s findings. Harris’s earlier five percentage point lead shrank to two points, the lowest yet, according to a third poll conducted by ABC/Ipsos.
Harris spokesman Ian Sams said the Democrat’s willingness to be interviewed by a hostile network showed she was more willing to take hard questions than her Republican opponent, who hasn’t yet agreed to interviews on networks MSNBC or CNN.
“It has been one month since Trump’s been interviewed by a mainstream media outlet, as he has backed out of 60 Minutes and refuses to debate again; meanwhile Harris is willing to even go on Fox,” Mr Sams said in a statement.
The Vice President has ramped up attacks on Trump’s fitness in recent days, suggesting his refusal both to appear on 60 Minutes and release his medical records pointed to his unfitness for office.
“I’ve done it. Every other presidential candidate in the modern era has done It,” Ms Harris said at a rally yesterday.
Trump supporters suggested the unexpected decision to appear on Fox after Harris engaged in a self-styled ‘media blitz’ last week indicated concern among her advisers her lead was slipping.
“She’s trailing in the polls or she wouldn’t do this. It’s certainly high risk for her,” said Ben Shapiro on X.
After Mr Trump definitively ruled out any further debates with his Democratic Party opponent last week, one-on-one interviews with the two candidates look set to be the only way undecided voters will see the two candidates in potentially difficult settings before polling day.
In his own interview with Fox News on Sunday Mr Trump dismissed Joe Biden’s suggestion the election outcome might not produce a peaceful transition of power.
“I think the bigger problem are the people from within … We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics,” he anchor Maria Bartiromo.
The Harris interview will air on Wednesday (Thursday), a little before Fox hosts a ‘town hall’ with Donald Trump before an audience of all women, as his campaign seeks to minimise an expected huge shortfall in support for Mr Trump among women voters.
The Vice President will headline a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania this evening at 7.35pm (10.35am AEDT), as Mr Trump heads to Oaks in the same state for his own rally beginning at 6pm (9am AEDT).
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