Bret Baier is defending his aggressive interviewing style during his Oct. 16 sit-down with Kamala Harris on Fox News.
Baier’s interview with Harris sparked discourse (and a “Saturday Night Live” parody, with Alec Baldwin portraying the Fox News anchor) due to Baier’s constant interrupting of the Vice President.
Baier told Vanity Fair that his interruptions were in an effort to “redirect” Harris from her “talking points,” adding that if he didn’t interject, the Democratic candidate for president would “eat up all the time of this interview that was live-to-tape.”
According to CNN, 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).” “SNL” satirized the interview with Maya Rudolph’s Harris telling Baldwin’s Baier that he has to “listen” to hear her answers to his questions — to which Baldwin quips: “Well, I can’t because I’m talking.”
“The campaign came in with a plan, and they wanted a strong viral moment. She clearly had a couple of those and she used a lot of her time talking about former President Trump,” Baier said. “I wish we could have just had this conversation, but because of time constraints and how she was answering, I figured if we didn’t do what we did, it would have been about four questions in [those] 20-plus minutes.”
Still, Baier held that his 2023 interview with Trump had “much the same tenor” and “the same kind of interruptions” when the former President tried to “go down a talking-points road.”
“I get the criticism,” Baier added of his interviewing style with Harris. “I get the wondering whether that was different. But if you look back on that one-on-one with former President Trump, he didn’t like it at the time.”
Despite the criticism, Baier would like for Harris to join him for another interview.
“I’d love to try again,” Baier said. “The more candidates face tough but fair questions, the better it is for viewers and voters, and actually the better it is for candidates.”