US elections: Harris vows to be different than Biden in fiery Fox interview

By Jennifer Epstein and Hadriana Lowenkron
Vice President Kamala Harris sought to deflect criticism over the administration’s handling of the border crisis, her stance on transgender rights and her ties to President Joe Biden in a combative interview Wednesday on Fox News.
 

“Let me be very clear, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency, and like every new president that comes in to office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas,” Harris said.

The Democratic presidential nominee’s first formal interview with the outlet ran for nearly half an hour, capping a day where Harris sought to broaden her appeal to conservative voters with an event in suburban Philadelphia featuring dozens of Republican officials who had endorsed her campaign. The interview between Harris and Fox chief political anchor Bret Baier was frequently testy, with both frequently interrupting and speaking over each other.

Baier opened the interview by pressing Harris on immigration, which voters have pegged as one of the defining issues of the election.

Harris argued that the administration has taken the issue of immigration seriously and that many of the problems they were facing pre-dated her and Biden taking office, and hit at Trump for his role in blocking a bipartisan bill that would have surged resources to address the border surge.

“We’ve had a broken immigration system transcending by the way Donald Trump’s administration even before. Let’s all be honest about that. I have no pride in saying that this is a perfect immigration system,” she said.

The vice president said she and Biden had offered legislation to address the immigration system within hours of taking office. 

“Our focus has been on fixing a problem,” she said.

But Baier pressed Harris on the number of undocumented migrants who had entered the country in recent years, and confronted Harris with a video clip of a family member blaming the Biden-Harris administration for the death of a woman murdered by someone in the country illegally.

Asked if she would apologize to that family, Harris responded that they were “tragic cases.”

“I am so sorry for her loss. I am so sorry for her loss, sincerely,” Harris added. “I feel awful for what she and her family have experienced.”

But she also insisted that Trump had stymied efforts to find a bipartisan solution to the problem, saying: “Let’s talk about what is happening right now with an individual who does not want to participate in solutions.”

During the interview, Baier also played an advertisement from the Trump campaign attacking Harris for statements during the 2020 presidential campaign in which she said she would use taxpayer dollars to pay for gender transition surgeries for prisoners. 

Harris responded by noting a recent New York Times report that federal prisoners had received gender affirming care during Trump’s administration.

“I think frankly that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit of like throwing you know stones when you’re living in a glass house,” Harris said. “I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed.”

While Harris earned plaudits from supporters who applauded her vigorous exchange with Baier, one moment during the exchanged seemed destined to become fodder in future campaign ads. 

When the Fox News host defended Trump by saying the Republican didn’t actively advocate the treatment for transgender inmates, Harris said candidates had to take responsibility “for what happened in your administration.”

The line could provide a convenient soundbite for Trump at a moment Harris’ campaign is seeking distance from Biden. Harris devoted significant time during the Fox interview to arguing she represented “a new generation of leadership,” after earning criticism for saying during an interview with The View last week that she could not think of a decision she would have approached differently than the current president.

Still, asked what voters should turn the page from - particularly with polls showing many unhappy with the direction of the country — Harris focused her response toward her opponent: “The last decade in which we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump.”