Bret Baier gets the “criticism” surrounding the 38 times he interrupted Kamala Harris during their Fox News interview.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Baier explained that he had his reasons for the numerous cutoffs of the vice president during his brief interview with the Democratic candidate. In his eyes, he was trying to “redirect” Harris’ “long answers,” which he was worried would “eat up all the time of this interview that was live-to-tape.” That said, he gets the callouts.
“I get the criticism,” Baier said. “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.”
The interview was viral enough that it got satirized on “Saturday Night Live.” Alec Baldwin played Baier while Maya Rudolph once again played Kamala Harris. At one point, Rudolph as Harris tells Baldwin’s Baier to listen when she’s answering questions. He quickly responds, “Well, I can’t because I’m talking.” The Fox News host saw the interview sketch and him and his family got a laugh out of it.
“I laughed out loud several times and my sons thought it was very cool,” Baier said. He even had kind words for the famously liberal performer who played him: “Alec is welcome to guest host on ‘Special Report’ anytime.”
The pair’s interview was a combative one from the start. From the first question about U.S.-Mexico border policy, the host frequently interrupted the candidate. Harris was quick to call him on it.
“You have to let me finish,” she said.
Despite the intense back-and-forth — or perhaps because of it — Baier and Harris’ interview scored big numbers for Fox News last week. “Special Report With Bret Baier” brought in 7.8 million viewers from 6-6:30 p.m. ET, according to viewing figures from Nielsen. The interview portion of “Special Report” also scored 1.126 million viewers in the key cable demo among adults 25-54.
The hour also marked the show’s highest-rated episode since 2020.