Bret Baier defends his aggressive interview style during his Oct. 16 conversation with Kamala Harris on Fox News.
Baier’s interview with Harris sparked debate (and a “Saturday Night Live” parody, with Alec Baldwin playing the Fox News host) due to Baier’s continued interruption of the vice president.
Bavarian told Vanity Fair that his interruptions were intended to “distract” Harris from her “talking points,” adding that if he didn’t intervene, the Democratic nominee for president would “eat up the entire time of this interview, which was live on tape.” .”
According to CNNBaier interrupted Harris “at least 38 times in 27 minutes, about twice as often as Baier intervened with Trump (at least 28 times in 36 minutes).” “SNL” satirized the interview in which Harris told Maya Rudolph Baldwin’s Baier that he has to “listen” to hear her answers to his questions — to which Baldwin jokes, “Well, I can’t because I’m talking.”
“The campaign came up with a plan and they wanted a strong viral moment. She obviously had some and she used a lot of her time to talk about former President Trump,” Baier said. “I wish we could have just had this conversation, but because of time constraints and the way she answered, I thought if we hadn’t done what we did, it would have been about four questions at one time. [those] More than twenty minutes.”
Still, Baier opined that his 2023 interview with Trump had “pretty much the same gist” and “the same kind of interruptions” as the former president tried to “navigate a path of talking points.”
“I understand the criticism,” Baier added of his interview style with Harris. “I wonder if that was different. But if you look back at that one-on-one with former President Trump, he didn’t like it at the time.”
Despite the criticism, Baier would like Harris to join him for another interview.
“I’d love to try it again,” Baier said. “The more candidates face tough but fair questions, the better it is for viewers and voters, and even the better it is for candidates.”