Fox News anchor Bret Baier pressed Vice President Kamala Harris on shifting political views over her career as the two sparred on a number of topics during their Oct. 16 interview on the network.
Hosted from Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania—one of the key battleground states for winning the presidency—the exchange featured tough questions on immigration, how Harris differs from President Joe Biden, and what country she believes is America’s greatest threat.
At times, Baier and Harris spoke over one another, with the vice president raising her voice as the interview continued.
Here’s an overview of three key topics discussed.
Illegal Immigration
Baier started with the topic of illegal immigration, asking Harris if she knew how many illegal immigrants had been released into the country over the last three and a half years.
“I’m glad you raised the issue of immigration, because I agree with you. It is a topic of discussion that people want to rightly have, and you know what I’m going to talk about,” Harris said.
Baier asked if she thought the number was closer to 1 million or 3 million.
“Brett, let’s just get to the point. Okay, the point is that we have a broken immigration system that needs to be repaired,” Harris replied.
Baier mentioned that at least 6 million people had been released into the country after crossing the border in the last three and a half years, while noting that Biden had rescinded a number of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump, including one that required illegal immigrants “to be detained through deportation, either in the U.S. or in Mexico.”
“Looking back, do you regret the decision to terminate ‘Remain in Mexico’ at the beginning of your administration?” Baier asked.
Harris noted the Biden administration’s efforts to pass the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 within moments after inauguration, which would have increased funding for the Department of Homeland Security and offered new pathways to citizenship for immigrants.
“It is a priority for us as a nation and for the American people, and our focus has been on fixing a problem,” Harris said, adding the Biden administration’s efforts to restrict asylum access in 2024. She also criticized Trump for opposing the failed bipartisan border bill, which Baier noted was opposed by six Democrats.
In response to a question about her past position on “using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens to transition to another gender,” Harris said she would “follow the law” at the federal level.
Comparison to Biden
Baier then pressed Harris on her comments last week when she said nothing comes to mind on what she would have done differently than Biden in the last three and a half years.
“Let me be very clear: my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency, and like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership,” she said, noting that she has not spent the majority of her career in Washington.
“I invite ideas, whether it be from the Republicans who are supporting me, who were just on stage with me minutes ago, and the business sector and others, who can contribute to the decisions that I make,” Harris added.
The anchor then mentioned a recent poll from the Marquette Law School that found 79 percent of respondents say the country is “off on the wrong track,” and told Harris if she is “turning the page, you’ve been in office for three and a half years.”
The two began to argue and speak over each other, with Harris suggesting that Trump has contributed to some of that sentiment and that “people are tired” of it.
She also criticized Trump’s comments from a Sunday Fox News interview.
“I always say, we have two enemies,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo. “We have the outside enemy, and then we have the enemy from within, and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries.”
During a Fox News town hall that aired on Oct. 16, Trump reiterated that he was referring to his Democratic opponents.
Harris said she wouldn’t speak about the American people—even those who support her opponent—with that language.
“The president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism” without going after his opponents, Harris said to Baier.
No. 1 Foreign Threat
At the close of the interview, Baier mentioned Harris’s comment in her “60 Minutes” interview when she said Iran is the number one foreign threat to the United States.
“If that’s the case, what do you say to critics who look at the actions of your administration and say, ‘You’re not acting like Iran is the number one threat?’” Baier asked, noting that some believe the administration’s relaxed sanctions on Iran caused increases in the Islamic country’s oil revenues, giving them more money to fund terrorism.
“I was there most recently, in the Situation Room in the most recent attack, working with the heads of our military in doing what America must always do, to defend and to support Israel in its requirement to defend itself ... including from Iran and Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region,” Harris said.
“My commitment to that is unyielding and unwavering.”
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