Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier made a surprising admission about a mistake he made during his meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Baier sat down with Harris on Wednesday in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, after she held an event with Republicans supporting her presidential bid.
The controversial interview received the highest ratings (nearly 8 million viewers) of any Fox News Channel segment of the entire 2024 campaign cycle.
During Thursday night’s episode of his show, Special Report, Baier told panelists Harris Faulkner and Harold Ford Jr. that there had been a big mistake.
‘Harold, I made a mistake. And I wanted to say that I made a mistake,” Baier said. ‘When I asked for a sound bite, I was hoping that some of the “enemy within” part of Maria Bartiromo’s interview would tie into her town hall piece, Harris, where she asked the former president on “the enemy within.”
Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier made a surprising admission about a mistake he made during his meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Instead, Baier admitted, what developed was simply “the piece about city hall.”
“Just listen to what I wanted to shoot,” he told viewers.
Former President Donald Trump had said Sunday during his meeting with Fox’s Bartiromo that “I think the biggest problem is the enemy within.”
‘Not even the people who have come in and are destroying our country. We have some sick, crazy radical leftists. “And I think they are, and it should be handled very easily, if necessary, by the National Guard, or if it’s really necessary, by the military,” Trump said.
That comment received widespread condemnation, and Harris even played it to her audience Monday night when she held a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, making it even more obvious when that wasn’t what was heard during the meeting with Baier.
What Baier interpreted during the interview with Harris was the opportunity Faulkner gave Trump to clean up.
“I heard about that,” Trump said during Faulker’s town hall. ‘They said I was like a threat. I’m not threatening anyone. They are the ones who threaten.
Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier (left) sat down with Vice President Kamala Harris (right) Wednesday night in Pennsylvania. On Thursday, she told viewers she intended to play a fuller clip when questioned about recent comments made by former President Donald Trump.
‘They do telephone investigations. I’ve been investigated more than Alphonse Capone. “He was the biggest gangster,” the former president continued. ‘No, it’s true. No, but think about it. It’s called militarization of the government. It’s something terrible.
When Harris heard this clip and not Trump’s initial comments about the “enemy within,” she was incredulous.
“Bret, I’m sorry, and with all due respect, that clip is not what he has been saying about the enemy within and what he has repeated when talking about the American people,” Harris said. “That’s not what you just showed,” he objected.
At the time, Baier defended the playback of that clip.
‘Well, they asked him about that specifically…’ Baier began.
“No, no, no, that’s not what you just showed, in all fairness and respect to you,” Harris responded.
“I assure you that was the question we asked him,” Baier said.